Catchy slogans wanted: China encourages couples to have a bigger family

China's Family Planning Association is soliciting slogans from the public that encourage couples to have up to three children.

The association is looking for catchy and creative slogans that can promote the "long-term balanced development of the population" and get rid of "obsolete marriage customs such as the high cost of betrothal gifts," it said in a statement today.

It offers up to 1,000 yuan (US$155) each for top-prize winners.

Earlier this year, China further loosened its two-child policy, allowing couples to have up to three children, to alleviate its headache of an aging population and optimize the population structure.

Provincial and municipal governments have followed up with supporting policies.

Beijing authorities said today that it will give an extra 30 days of maternity leave to mothers who give birth to a third child after May 31. The fathers are entitled to an additional 15 days of paternity leave, they said.

Earlier, Panzhihua in Sichuan Province said it would offer subsidies to families with more than one child, the first Chinese city to give out such an incentive.

Each child after the first one, born on or after June 12, 2021, will receive a monthly subsidy of 500 yuan until they are 3 years old, it said.

To be eligible for the subsidies, the parents and the second or third child should have their hukou, or household registration status, in Panzhihua, the city government said in July.

China had 12 million newborns in 2020, a fourth consecutive decline since 2017, while China's total fertility rate of women of childbearing age was 1.3, among the lowest in the world.

Chinese people aged 60 or above account for 18.7 percent of the total population, 5.44 percentage points higher than a decade ago.

China's population on the mainland has reached 1.41178 billion, up 5.38 percent from the previous census in 2010, according to the latest census.