China is seeking to make it easier to get married and harder to get divorced, as more young people are choosing to stay single while the government tries to reverse a declining birth rate.
The civil affairs ministry released a draft amendment to the Regulation on Marriage Registration this month, calling it an important change to “build happy and harmonious families”. It is open for public feedback until September 11.
It comes as China – its population shrinking and rapidly ageing – is facing a demographic crisis and policymakers are struggling to encourage young people to get married and have children.
According to official data, some 3.43 million people registered for marriage in the first six months of 2024 – down 12 per cent from a year ago and the lowest number in a decade.
The birth rate meanwhile plunged to a record low of 9.02 million births in 2023, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
Under the revised regulation, couples can get married using just their ID cards anywhere in the country. Previously, they also needed their official household registration, or hukou, and could only marry in the places where they were registered.
China’s decades-old household registration system is tied to access to education, job opportunities and social services, potentially affecting where and how couples can raise a family.
The revision also includes a 30-day cooling-off period for a divorce, when either party may withdraw their application. It only applies to divorce applications made at registry offices, not divorce by lawsuit.
According to the ministry, the compulsory wait aims to “reduce impulsive divorces” but the move has sparked debate on Chinese social media, with critics saying it will prolong unhappy marriages and limit personal freedom.
The topic had been read more than 650 million times on Weibo as of Wednesday.
“Why don’t you just cancel divorces completely?” one commenter said.
Another wrote: “If you want to reduce tragedies, you need to introduce a marriage cooling-off period.”
A ministry spokesperson sought to ease concerns, telling state news agency Xinhua that the revision aimed to make it easier to register a marriage since many people no longer lived in the place where their household was registered.
The spokesperson said the cooling-off period would not affect the right to divorce. “They can still apply for divorce or file a lawsuit. If an individual feels threatened by the other party they can seek help through legal channels.”
He Yafu, an independent demographer, said young people were not convinced that this was anything other than the government trying to push them to get married.
But he noted that the technology had advanced and hukou were no longer needed for the marriage registration process. He also said the cooling-off period for divorce was in line with the Civil Code that took effect in 2021.
“Compared with most European countries, the 30-day cooling off period in China is rather short,” He said. “But because there’s a trend to not get married or have children, many people would like to see getting married made more difficult and getting a divorce made easy … so this new draft repels young people.”
Faced with high living costs, a challenging job market and increasing work pressure, many young people are choosing not to marry and start families. In addition, more women are becoming well-educated and financially independent, which has led to more individual freedom and choices.
The government has been trying to drive up the birth rate with incentives including cheaper housing, tax cuts and even cash. President Xi Jinping has called for women to return to more traditional roles, urging officials to “foster a new type of marriage and childbearing culture”.
But many young people are drawn to the narrative that marriage is a trap and has no benefits.
That has some basis in reality, according to divorce and family lawyer Zhong Wen. “It’s difficult to get divorced in China,” he said. “Even if you file a lawsuit, the wait is getting longer and longer.”
Zhong said the courts tended to process divorce applications slowly, starting with mediation, and if one party disagreed there was a high chance the court would not rule in favour of divorce and the case would take even longer.
Xin He, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, has written about women being disadvantaged in divorce cases in China. He noted that since the courts have a political concern for social stability, they often choose the most efficient and safest way to handle issues in divorce cases, resulting in delays, domestic violence being trivialised and women losing custody of their children.
For some young people, the trend away from marriage is liberating. Tiffany Chen, an unmarried film producer in Beijing, said it showed that young people saw marriage as an outdated institution.
“When young people are no longer getting married, it means that they believe love, intimacy, sex and companionship – crucial concepts to humankind – are no longer linked to a marriage,” she said.
