China imposes 13% tax on condoms

China is to tax contraception for the first time in more than three decades in a move aligned with efforts to get more families to have children.

Contraceptive drugs and products such as condoms will no longer be exempt from China’s 13% value added tax from January 1, the country’s newest tax laws have revealed.

The move comes as the country’s birth rate declines. In 2024, 9.5 million babies were born in China, about one-third fewer than the 14.7 million born in 2019, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

As deaths have outpaced births in China, India overtook it as the world’s most populous country in 2023.

But the tax change has been ridiculed on on Chinese social media by people who have joked that they would be fools not to know that raising a child is more expensive than using condoms, even if they are taxed.

“That’s a really ruthless move,” said Hu Lingling, mother of a 5-year-old who said she is determined not to have another child. She said she would “lead the way in abstinence” as a rebel.

“It is also hilarious, especially compared to forced abortions during the family planning era,” she said.

More seriously, experts are raising concerns over potential increases in unplanned pregnancies and s3xually transmitted diseases due to higher costs for contraceptives.