Discussion keeps the world turning.
Hello, welcome to Roundtable, I'm Niu Honglin.
China has officially entered a new era of demographic policy with the release of the Draft Child Care Services Law.
With enrollment rates for children under 3 currently hovering around 8%,
the central government is moving to treat child care not as a private luxury,
but as a basic public service.
This draft introduces a mandatory national qualification system and background checks techniques,
signaling a move to professionalize a sector long-dominated by less-regulated,
rather expensive private providers.
Today,
we analyze the hard rules of the blueprint and what it means for the country's 15th five-year plan.
For this episode, I'm joined by Fei-Fei and Steve Hatherly.
Let's be honest,
raising a human under the age of three is a full-time job that usually pays in exhaustion and sticky handprints.
Here in the country, one in three Chinese families want professional childcare,
yet only 8% actually have it.
Why is there such a massive gap, and can this new draft law finally make dropping the kids off safe,
affordable, and even inclusive for the older families in the society?
So let's first take a look at the new regulation here.
What are the new policies?