BEIJING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- China will take further steps to support child-rearing, including making childcare more accessible and affordable, to build a birth-friendly society and boost its birth rate, according to health officials on Monday.
Lei Haichao, head of the National Health Commission (NHC), told a press conference that continuous efforts will be made to promote the integrated development of services at kindergartens and nursery centers, and to support communities and employers in setting up childcare facilities.
The aim is to ensure that families can access childcare services close to their homes or workplaces and at relatively affordable prices, Lei explained.
The country will work to raise coverage of childcare services among young children to effectively reduce families' costs of having, raising and educating children, he said.
The country will also work to improve access to pediatric care at grassroots medical institutions, he noted.
By the end of this year, 1,000 more community-level medical and health institutions will be capable of offering pediatric care compared with 2025, Lei said, adding that by that time, over 95 percent of the country's township-level clinics and community health service centers are expected to have the capacity to provide relevant services.
More than 3,000 pediatricians have been sent from higher-level hospitals to grassroots medical institutions to strengthen pediatric services at the community level, Lei said.
China has developed a full-cycle maternity support system covering pre-pregnancy, pregnancy and childbirth, and child-rearing, with measures that include maternity allowances, childcare subsidies, medical insurance reimbursement and affordable childcare services, to ease the financial burden on families with children.
A total of 12,562 early pregnancy care clinics have been established, covering almost all counties, said Lei. Pregnant women can visit these clinics in the early stages of pregnancy for counseling and other services. If there is a risk of miscarriage, the clinics can help women assess the risk and take preventive measures.
In 2025, China's maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate dropped to 13.4 per 100,000 live births and 3.8 per 1,000 live births, respectively, placing China among the leaders in these indicators among upper-middle- and high-income countries and countries with populations exceeding 100 million.
In terms of incentives, the country introduced a nationwide childcare subsidy program in 2025, offering an annual tax-free subsidy of 3,600 yuan (about 530 U.S. dollars) for each child under the age of three. It also began waiving childcare and education fees for the final year of kindergarten in the 2025 autumn semester.
As of August, more than 25 million infants and toddlers had received childcare subsidies for 2026, and roughly 24 million children enrolled in kindergartens had benefited from the fee-waiving policy.
Also, 260 million people are currently covered by maternity insurance, and many regions are expanding coverage to allow flexible workers to enroll in maternity insurance alongside employee medical insurance.
These policies are among China's broader efforts to build a birth-friendly society amid declining birth rates and an aging population.
Building a "birth-friendly society" has become a key focus of China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030). The outline sets out measures, including incentives to encourage births and efforts to reduce the costs of childbirth, childcare and education.
It says the goal is to stabilize the number of newborns and support long-term balanced population development.
"China's population currently stands at 1.405 billion, and the fundamentals of China as a populous country remain unchanged," said Lei.
Although the number of newborns has declined in recent years, it has remained at around 8 million, a number very few countries can match, he added.
BETTER HEALTH FOR ALL
Officials at the press conference also expounded on other key aspects of a national health plan for the 2026-2030 period unveiled in July, including making health services more accessible, inclusive, comprehensive and continuous.
China has built the world's largest healthcare service system, with more than 1.1 million medical and health institutions nationwide, while over 90 percent of residents can reach their nearest healthcare facility within 15 minutes, said Guo Yanhong, deputy head of the NHC.
However, the system still falls short of people's needs in some respects, Guo noted, urging a shift of efforts from ensuring access to improving quality, with faster progress in developing a high-quality, efficient and integrated healthcare service system.
For instance, community health centers and health centers in central townships should gradually expand their medical service capabilities, develop specialty departments suited to local needs, and improve their capacity to diagnose and treat common and frequently occurring diseases and provide health management services.
Efforts should also be made to further strengthen the workforce of rehabilitation and nursing professionals and step up the training of rehabilitation nurses and therapists, to have seven rehabilitation physicians and 16 rehabilitation therapists per 100,000 people across the country by the end of 2030, Guo said.
Lei noted that the demographic trend of the growing divergence in population changes across regions, with population development becoming increasingly uneven. With various factors considered, over the next five years, demand for healthcare services, particularly for healthcare professionals, is expected to continue growing in China, he said.
China will therefore expand the training of medical students via increased enrollment in high-quality undergraduate and master's programs, targeted training programs for medical students to serve in rural areas, and a special program for university graduates to work as rural doctors, the official said.
Through closer coordination between medical education and healthcare, China will continue to increase its number of medical professionals while making healthcare positions more attractive via improvements in remuneration and personnel incentive systems, so that medical workers are willing to build long-term, stable careers. Efforts will also be made to foster a social environment that respects medical professionals and values healthcare workers, said Lei. Enditem
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