China Policy for the Prevention of Bastards

China Does Not Allow Single Women To Freeze Their Eggs

“Manya, perhaps you should write about this,” my Beijing friend Lily texts me on Weixin: “I have been discussing this with some of my friends today, and it is somewhat of a sensitive topic.” She sends me an article that has been making its rounds on China’s bigger social media platforms, such as Sina Weibo and Weixin. It is titled “China Does Not Allow Single Women to Freeze Their Eggs” (中国禁单身女性用冷冻卵子), and has triggered much controversy.

More specifically: although single women in China technically can have their eggs frozen (if they have the money for it), they will not be able to have them inseminated unless they provide three certificates: their identification card, their marriage certificate, and their ‘zhunshengzheng‘ (准生证 ) – the ‘Permission to give Birth’, which will not be issued without the marriage certificate. In short: single women will not be able to have a baby through artificial insemination, because they will never get the required legal papers to go through with the procedure.

China likes to troll America from the left, but it would be much funnier if it trolled from the right.