Compulsory romance lessons among proposals at China’s political conference

“Romance and marriage lessons” in schools, using the social credit system to penalise people who abandon their pets, and ending compulsory English lessons are among the proposals made on the sidelines of China’s most important political conference.

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Photograph: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images

The proposals were made by delegates at the Chinese people’s political consultative conference (CPPCC), one of two major political meetings happening in Beijing this week under the banner of lianghui, or Two Sessions. While much of the focus is on high-level geopolitical and national announcements, the suggestions for social policies have caught Chinese people’s attention online.

© Photograph: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images
Amid falling marriage and birth rates, one delegate proposed compulsory lessons in colleges to strengthen ‘emotional education’ in relationships.

China’s government is facing a crisis of an ageing population, declining birth and marriage rates and rising divorce rates, which it is aiming to address with new population targets and a raised retirement age. This week, CPPCC delegate Yu Xinwei also proposed compulsory lessons in colleges to strengthen “emotional education” in relationships.

Related: ‘Two sessions’: China expected to unveil new controls on Hong Kong

“Most college students’ understanding of emotions and sex stays at the physiological sexual health knowledge,” Yu said. “When facing emotional or romantic setbacks they are prone to be rabid, get out of control, even commit crime.”

The proposal drew support on China’s social media, with some suggesting it be taught earlier, in high school. A related hashtag has been viewed almost half a billion times, and reposted 22,000 times.

A separate proposal to link pet ownership to China’s controversial social credit system also grabbed attention. Dai Junfeng, the secretary general of the Islamic Association of Yunnan province, told the meeting there were major issues with controlling strays, and abandoned domesticated animals were a contributor. Dai called for microchipping the animals to identify owners.

“At the same time this can connect to the citizen credit system and include the act of abandoning domestic animals in their personal bad credit records,” he said.

A Weibo hashtag related to the animal control proposal was viewed almost 100m times, with many in favour, although some were worried it took the system too far.

“This can be dealt with by administrative means, don’t overuse the social credit system,” said one.

Social credit systems are in place across provinces, municipalities and districts in China, using technology and surveillance data to give citizens personalised scores based on their actions, and apply punishments – such as travel blacklisting – for “discredited” people.

The varying systems individually interpret general national guidances and opinions, meaning there is a geography-dependent range of offences which can see someone put on a blacklist, which is then shared with the national administration to publish.

The controversial system has attracted concern from rights groups and international observers, but has a level of support within China. A 2019 ethnographic study by University College London researcher Xinyuan Wang found many people saw the system as “a national project to boost public morality through fighting fraud and crime and combating what is currently seen as a nationwide crisis of trust”.

Séverine Arsène, a researcher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said some administrations “go really far” with their interpretations of national guidance, but that Dai’s hypothetical proposal wasn’t that far out. “Many municipal credit systems have that kind of behaviour in their criteria. It’s very much about respecting rules and regulations on a very daily life level basis.”

Among other proposals, Xu Jin, a member of political group the Jiusan Society, told the CPCC he wants more school time dedicated to subjects including Chinese and mathematics, and an end to compulsory English lessons. Xu argued such lessons were “only useful for the minority” given improvements in translation devices.

Six delegates also called for stronger supervision of facial recognition technology, to prevent abuses of people’s privacy.

A proposal to the parallel rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, to give teachers a tax break was viewed more than 130m times on Weibo, and a call for gender neutral parental leave was also popular.

The CPPCC is comprised of mainly of party delegates and representatives from approved political parties, and is a largely ceremonial advisory body.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report