On Monday, December 22, 2025, the Chinese mainland's National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee kicked off the first reading of a draft law designed to regulate and promote childcare services, strengthen protections for children under three, and beef up parenting support policies. 👶🏛️
According to Luo Shugang, chairman of the NPC's Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee, this legislation journey began in 2023. Committees crisscrossed regions like Beijing, Guangdong, Heilongjiang, and Inner Mongolia to dig into local childcare practices and tackle real-world challenges.
The proposed law spans eight chapters and 76 articles, using a demand-driven, problem-focused approach to address:
- Affordable care: expand public options to help families cut costs 💸
- Quality and safety: set clear approval steps, staffing rules, and a "blacklist" barring individuals with violent or sexual offense records 🚫
- Professional standards: require childcare providers to meet training and facility guidelines 🎓
- Service diversity: from daycares to community hubs, build an accessible, high-quality system across the Chinese mainland 🌐
This initiative comes as the Chinese mainland faces a historic low birth rate. In 2024, it recorded just 6.77 births per 1,000 people—9.54 million in total. A decade earlier, numbers were nearly double: 12.07 per 1,000, or 16.55 million births in 2015. High childcare and living costs are a key factor behind this drop. 📉
To ease the burden, the Chinese mainland has already rolled out support measures, including a plan to make childbirth essentially free under the national medical insurance system by 2026 and an annual subsidy of 3,600 yuan per child under three.
As the NPC Standing Committee delves into the draft, stakeholders say this law could reshape childcare across the Chinese mainland and offer a stronger safety net for young families. Stay tuned as the story unfolds! 🔍✨
Reference(s):
China's draft law on childcare services submitted for first reading
cgtn.com
