Children play in a park in Shenzhen on Jan. 18, 2026. Photo: VCG Chinese parents have long used colorful slang to describe their children, calling them “gold-swallowing beasts” or “cash shredders.” A new study suggests those anxieties are well-founded — but also reveals an unexpected financial twist: in the Chinese mainland, children actually become cheaper by the dozen. To raise a child to the ag...
Children play in a park in Shenzhen on Jan. 18, 2026. Photo: VCG Chinese parents have long used colorful slang to describe their children, calling them “gold-swallowing beasts” or “cash shredders.” A new study suggests those anxieties are well-founded — but also reveals an unexpected financial twist: in the Chinese mainland, children actually become cheaper by the dozen. To raise a child to the age of 18 in the Chinese mainland costs an average of 580,000 yuan ($85,625), according to a report released on May 29 by the YuWa Population Research Institute. The private think tank, co-founded by Trip.com Group Chairman James Liang, highlighted the massive financial pressures driving China’s demographic crisis. But the study also found that the incremental cost of having additional children drops significantly, revealing substantial “economies of scale” in parenting.
Malaysia is heading into a run of state elections, including two triggered by early assembly dissolutions, after Negeri Sembilan became the latest state to call a snap poll amid fraying ties inside Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling alliance. While the polls will not directly affect Anwar’s parliamentary majority, they will test whether his federal partners can keep their coalition functioning ...
Malaysia is heading into a run of state elections, including two triggered by early assembly dissolutions, after Negeri Sembilan became the latest state to call a snap poll amid fraying ties inside Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling alliance. While the polls will not directly affect Anwar’s parliamentary majority, they will test whether his federal partners can keep their coalition functioning at the state level or whether local disputes will deepen the fractures between them. On Friday,...