A Chinese company, Shuntian Chemical Group, faced backlash and official scrutiny after issuing a controversial notice that required unmarried employees to marry by September 2025 or risk termination.
The company, based in Shandong province, stated in the notice that values such as "diligence, kindness, loyalty, filial piety, and righteousness" should guide employees’ personal lives, with marriage and children seen as essential to embodying these values.
The notice instructed all single or divorced employees aged 28-58 to get married by September 30, 2025. Employees failing to meet this deadline would face consequences, including being required to write self-criticism letters by March and possibly being fired after a review in June.
The policy was designed to encourage older unmarried employees to marry, according to company representatives.
The local human resources and social security bureau intervened, pointing out that the company’s notice violated labor laws.
Following the intervention, the company withdrew the directive. China’s declining birthrate, worsened by the one-child policy that ended in 2016, has led to a population decline, with deaths exceeding births for three consecutive years.
Despite government efforts to encourage marriage and childbearing, the number of registered marriages continues to drop, reaching just over 6.1 million in 2025, down from 7.68 million in 2021.
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