Based Camp - China Changing Marriage Law to Increase Birth Rates

00:00:00.000 Hello, Simone. Today, we are going to be going into how China is attempting to deal with its 0.60

00:00:07.060 demographic catastrophe it's going through. And one of the ways is through changing how marriage

00:00:12.960 and divorce work in the country. And we had seen a tweet that briefly covered some of the changes

00:00:19.600 that they had in this area. But I wanted to go a lot deeper than this particular tweet into the

00:00:24.400 specifics of how things are changing, and how people in China are reacting to it, and why they

00:00:30.420 think it might work. You ready to dive in or anything? Yes. Go further. I'm intrigued. This

00:00:36.460 would happen. We're like, look, people are going to what's interesting about these changes. I think

00:00:40.360 many red pillars would probably like a lot of them. So we'll see how this goes. You know,

00:00:43.980 they're not all the worst. Okay. Marriage registration. The revised law proposed in August

00:00:52.440 2024 and effective as of February 2025 removes regional restrictions on marriage registration,

00:00:58.780 allowing couples to register anywhere in China without needing to return to their household

00:01:03.480 registration, Hakuku, locations. This simplifies the process, aiming to encourage marriage amid

00:01:09.420 demographic crises. It sounds like marriage before then must have been uniquely difficult.

00:01:14.540 What on earth is this? Like needing to return to... This is actually a really interesting point. So

00:01:20.160 in China, you are like sort of owned by your starting district often. And to move to a new

00:01:27.560 area, it can be quite difficult and require permission from the central government.

00:01:31.680 Almost like changing citizenship. Yeah. Almost like changing citizenship. And if you're like a migrant 1.00

00:01:36.300 worker or something like that, you often need to go back to your home area for certain like legal

00:01:40.300 things. What's really fascinating about this is where this relates to religious history. A lot of

00:01:46.560 people like modern historians and stuff like this have said that they do not believe that Joseph had to

00:01:54.040 return to his hometown during the census because they're like, that doesn't make sense. How could a

00:02:00.740 Roman census work where literally everyone who had ever moved at some point in their life had to return

00:02:06.100 to their hometown at the same time for a census? And I think what they're not taking into consideration

00:02:12.420 is one, we see this in other countries like China, even today, basically. And two, not as many people

00:02:20.100 moved in those types of environments where your legal standing was in large part tied to where you

00:02:26.040 were born, probably in the Roman Empire or something like that. If you moved too far from where you were

00:02:29.700 born, somebody could just take you and say you're their slave, right? Like there wasn't a lot you could

00:02:34.660 legally do. So it was quite dangerous to move long distances during those time periods and try to live

00:02:40.440 somewhere else unless your job was trading. And if you were a trader, you'd have guards and stuff like

00:02:45.120 that. And it was quite a different thing than just like moving. But anyway, I find that to be a good

00:02:50.200 thing. They are loosening bureaucratic bloat. 100%. Yeah. China's marriage rate has plummeted with only 6.1

00:02:59.000 million marriages recorded in 2024. A 20.5% drop from 2023. Year over year, it dropped by over 20%.

00:03:10.200 And this was the lowest since 1986. This decline coupled with low birth rates has prompted the

00:03:17.280 government to promote family-friendly policies, quote-unquote family-friendly, which is wild.

00:03:22.800 Divorce proceedings. The 30-day cooling-off period first introduced in 2021 under China's civil code

00:03:29.620 is retained and emphasized in the 2025 revisions. Couples filing for divorce by mutual consent must wait 30

00:03:37.160 days during which either party can withdraw the application, effectively halting the process.

00:03:42.560 Wow. If no withdrawal occurs, they must reapply within another 30 days to finalize the divorce.

00:03:48.140 Otherwise, the application is automatically withdrawn and canceled.

00:03:51.520 Oh, so just adding friction to the process. They're reducing friction to get married, 1.00

00:03:57.100 adding friction to get divorced. 0.98

00:03:58.520 Exactly. And obviously, a lot of people are freaking out about the, what? What if he's abusive?

00:04:04.720 Well, we'll get to that because it's not that they haven't thought of that. But anyway.

00:04:08.800 This period has significantly reduced divorce rates, a reported 70% drop in the first quarter of 2021,

00:04:16.000 from 1 million to 296,000. However, it has sparked criticism for delaying or preventing divorces,

00:04:23.900 particularly in cases of domestic violence, despite exemptions for such cases. The point

00:04:29.180 being is that there are actually exemptions for those cases. Not a bad law to implement here in

00:04:33.420 the U.S. People would go absolutely panic mode if they did, but- Yeah, they would.

00:04:38.860 Anyway. Critics argue the cooling-off period undermines personal autonomy, with one Weibo user

00:04:45.240 stating, it's easy to get married, but hard to divorce. What a stupid rule. A sentiment that 1.00

00:04:51.360 garnered tens of thousands of likes. Why would that be a stupid rule? Why would a government 1.00

00:04:55.400 who prefers people being married not want it to be easy to get married and hard to divorce?

00:04:59.480 That's why, if you look at the executive orders we submitted for the Trump administration, we wanted

00:05:03.260 to reduce any tax penalties for marriage. A government should always prefer people to be 1.00

00:05:07.400 married. Married people are just strictly better than non-married people. They commit less crimes. 0.98

00:05:13.300 They make more money. They are more stable, economically speaking. They make for better parents.

00:05:18.900 They, like, in every metric, you as a government would prefer to have more of your population 0.82

00:05:23.480 married. Any thoughts before I go further? I agree. Well, I would also add that kids are a lot

00:05:31.520 better off when they have two parents to support them. So, yeah. I mean, it's tough. Obviously,

00:05:36.780 it's complicated. And then when there is abuse involved or if a parent is incredibly toxic

00:05:41.100 and putting the kids in danger, it's a very different situation. But yeah, I think being too flippant

00:05:46.780 about both getting married and getting divorced is not a good thing. Yeah. Ownership based on

00:05:53.800 payment. The 2025 law reportedly shifts property division to favor the spouse who paid for the

00:05:59.520 asset, even if both names are on the title. This marks a departure from the previous norm of equal

00:06:04.560 division of marital property. For example, a husband purchased a property and later added his wife's

00:06:09.540 name to the deed would retain full ownership upon divorce. That's going to piss off women a lot, 1.00

00:06:14.400 but it is a very sane as a, like, I don't understand why that wouldn't be the norm everywhere.

00:06:19.180 Yeah. Well, I mean, it really, really, really disincentivizes people from getting divorced when

00:06:24.620 they feel like doing so will protect or enable them to just live financially independently. There

00:06:31.600 will be less financial misaligned incentives. Yeah. Yeah. No. And I think that for a lot of women, 1.00

00:06:38.480 they're like, well, you know, I gave up my years as a career or whatever. So I deserve a portion of it.

00:06:43.120 Yeah. But the existing system just makes no sense. It doesn't make sense that you should be getting

00:06:47.800 alimony and child payment and half his stuff. They say the woman gets half, the man gets a quarter

00:06:53.100 and the lawyers get a quarter. That doesn't make sense because that almost incentivizes women who 1.00

00:06:58.940 are the less interested party in the relationship to initiate a divorce because it can be quite a

00:07:03.800 cushy life. It's in their financial best interest, especially if they feel like they can trade up.

00:07:07.660 So not only do you end up with more assets than you had coming into the marriage, but you can also

00:07:13.940 do it all over again, which is really bad. Yeah. Just keep, keep playing that game and live like

00:07:21.100 that. And that is. No, I would also say like those who are arguing, this is pushing in people into

00:07:25.520 trad relationships. I would actually argue that there's a world in which this encourages more of

00:07:30.500 what we consider to be trad relationships, which is the corporate family. This is saying women, 0.98

00:07:34.340 if you want to be financially safe, if you want to have an off-ramp from a toxic marriage,

00:07:39.800 you need to maintain some level of income, some kind of career, whether it's from home

00:07:44.660 or remotely or in an office, because if you don't and you want to leave someday, you will have no

00:07:50.740 savings. You will have no house. You will not have anything. And I think it's really good

00:07:53.860 to have incentives in place that also encourage both partners to be economically productive,

00:07:59.320 possibly even together, maybe from the home, whatever it is. And this does that,

00:08:03.760 which is really great. I think anything that it encourages women or any, like any single partner

00:08:08.940 to just sit there and be 100% a homemaker that is not bringing in money is very dangerous because

00:08:14.560 as we've, you've discussed at length in the Pregnative Schedule Relationships, this may work

00:08:19.260 for 10, 15, even 20 years. And then it can become extremely unsustainable and toxic in a relationship.

00:08:26.560 What's interesting is that if we contrast this with what's been happening in the United States in

00:08:30.580 terms of divorce law, it aligns with it to an extent. In 2011, a Supreme Court ruling that family

00:08:36.760 homes purchased before the marriage belonged to the register buyer, often the husband, which

00:08:41.180 disadvantaged women due to cultural norms where men typically provide homes. 0.73

00:08:47.760 That was almost certainly a different tick than the first one.

00:08:51.020 Okay. Well, the really important thing that you need to make sure you do going forward is not walk

00:09:00.840 through that deer field. We need to walk around where the grass is mowed. I know you like taking the

00:09:06.060 shortcut, but that is almost 100% where you got that tick. So you are absolutely right, Simone.

00:09:12.960 So let's carry on. You're talking about how this was similar to a shift in US divorce law that also

00:09:19.860 allowed men to keep the house. Yeah. Which just seems sane. Like, especially if women are waiting 1.00

00:09:26.400 on a man to be that financially stable before marrying him, I can understand being like, okay,

00:09:30.680 you know, you work together, you got married at a young age. You didn't know how much money he'd make

00:09:34.760 at that time. You know, that's different than you married a guy who was already rich. You absolutely

00:09:39.520 should have no claim to that house. Yes. Well, I mean, I, there's something to this concept of

00:09:46.280 commingled assets whereby if there's some basis, I think at least in many states for there being

00:09:53.620 collaboration on behalf of the couple on certain assets, like investments, then they get split. And if

00:10:02.080 they were things that were just maintained separate the whole time, like some investment account that

00:10:06.640 only you kept and I never was involved with, then it's much easier for you to argue in a divorce case

00:10:12.300 that you get to keep that. And I think that if a couple grows up together and one decides to work

00:10:18.320 and the other decides to stay home with kids that, you know, the house that they buy with the income

00:10:23.540 from the one parent made possible by the other parents staying home, that's more arguably something

00:10:28.340 that should be split, right? Like, I also don't think that in cases where couples are making difficult

00:10:32.660 trade-offs. There should be no consideration of things like that, but absolutely. Like if someone

00:10:37.320 bought this with their own money ahead of time, there's no, there's no right. The other partner

00:10:41.780 has to it. I think this more is, is, is a nuanced situation that comes up when there's a trade-off

00:10:47.700 between, you know, career choices and especially child rearing choices. Yeah. So next ex post claim,

00:10:55.860 this rule makes it impossible for some women to take financial advantage of marriage, reflecting a perception 1.00

00:11:01.740 that it closes legal loopholes. Properties gifted to the husband by his parents are explicitly

00:11:06.600 excluded from shared matrimonial property and remain his sole property post-divorce. This

00:11:11.440 provision reinforces the traditional practice where families often agree invest in homes for the

00:11:16.460 couple, but it can leave women with little to claim to assets they may have contributed to 0.99

00:11:21.100 indirectly through household labor. This rule has fueled debates about fairness as women in China 1.00

00:11:25.900 often face economic disadvantages, including a gender income gap and limited property ownership.

00:11:30.720 Well, first I don't know if they have a gender income gap there. I know that people lie about

00:11:34.420 that in the United States. So like, that makes me suspicious of it everywhere. There's no people

00:11:38.680 know there isn't a gender income gap in the U S when you control for like hours put in and everything 0.83

00:11:43.360 like that. And there is, however, I should say an explicit gender income gap for younger Americans,

00:11:48.080 but women make more than men. So like, yes, there is economic disparity and it's that we need to start 0.97

00:11:54.460 prejudicing against women. Well, and if anything, the disadvantage that women have income wise is 1.00

00:11:59.660 due to cultural disparities, like women feeling like they need to be the one to scale down or 0.98

00:12:05.780 start working part-time because they want to be the one to take their kid to the doctor. They want

00:12:09.760 to be the one to do this or that. And in our relationship, for example, Malcolm does all that.

00:12:14.580 And so it doesn't have to be that way, but I think a lot of women just either want to do that. They want 1.00

00:12:19.660 to spend more of their time parenting. So they choose to work less. And then therefore they end up making

00:12:23.420 less like there are long-term career impacts, of course, to having gaps in your resume.

00:12:27.900 And so I would say the measurable aspects, when you say controlling for other things,

00:12:32.580 a lot of it's controlling for these culturally driven decisions that women make with regard to 1.00

00:12:36.460 their careers that affects lifetime income. Yes, absolutely. And I'd also note here that

00:12:42.300 people can be like, well, that seems totally reasonable that, you know, because the money was

00:12:46.580 given to the man by his parents, right? The problem becomes it's, it's not as bad in China 0.85

00:12:52.340 because you have so many single, you know, parent households, right? Like they're, they're parents

00:12:55.940 to one kid. But if you have a son and a daughter, you pay for your son's house, but not your daughter's

00:13:00.860 house because the, the parents of the man who she married pay for that. Yeah. Which is why this

00:13:06.220 systemically disadvantages women. Yeah. And it can be fixed by creating situations where you pay for 1.00

00:13:12.800 your children, regardless of their genders. But then people will say, well, then I won't secure as good

00:13:17.500 of a woman or I won't secure any woman as well, because there's, you know, far fewer women than men in China

00:13:21.240 due to the one child system and them like exposing, you know, female babies and stuff like that, 1.00

00:13:25.900 which, you know, just puts them in a terrible situation. A lot of people in China just aren't

00:13:30.060 going to get a partner. And I don't know what to say about that. Not good.

00:13:37.140 Impact and controversy. Gender inequality concerns. Feminist critics, such as writer Zhao Meilin,

00:13:43.760 argue that law restricts women's rights to seek separation, particularly as women initiate 74% 0.97

00:13:49.200 of divorce cases. The cooling off period is seen as a step backwards, potentially trapping women in 1.00

00:13:54.660 unhappy marriages. You know, it's like, okay, if they're initiating 74% of divorces, that makes it

00:14:00.840 sound like women are the problem. Not, not the men. That's not a thing to brag about. Property division 0.95

00:14:06.820 changes exacerbate these concerns as women who contribute non-financially, e.g. childcare and 1.00

00:14:12.340 housework may receive little or no compensation. A 2024 study by Yale sociologist Emma Zang,

00:14:17.680 the 2011 property rule reduced women's wellbeing by limiting their economic autonomy, though some 0.98

00:14:24.640 couples adapted by adding wives' names to deeds. Okay. In cases of domestic violence, the cooling

00:14:33.420 off period's exemption is inconsistently applied, with reports of courts denying divorces despite

00:14:38.680 evidence of abuse. For example, a 2019 case involving a woman assaulted by her husband

00:14:43.660 required public pressure via social media to secure a divorce. Now, no, when you get something like

00:14:49.500 this, this is a direct result of people who didn't take pronatalism seriously. This is what you get.

00:14:55.240 This is the natural result of not taking pronatalism seriously. Yeah. Not ideal. Yeah. Women's rights 1.00

00:15:03.500 do get eroded as panic sets in. It didn't have to be this way. Yeah. Social media backlash. The law has

00:15:12.300 generated significant online criticism, with Weibo hashtags about the draft law garnering over 500

00:15:17.980 million views in August 2024. Users have called it unfair, with one stating, when they want you to do

00:15:24.060 something, they'll simplify the process, but when they don't, there will be endless procedures. Well,

00:15:29.340 I mean, yeah, that is what was going to happen as a result of you guys not getting married and having

00:15:33.580 kids. Yeah. Duh. On X, posts reflect polarized views. Some praise the law for protecting men's assets and

00:15:41.260 closing loopholes, while others highlight negative impact on women, particularly in abusive situations.

00:15:47.340 These posts often lack primary sources and should be treated as inconclusive. Women have also used 0.99

00:15:53.500 platforms like Zhang Zhe to celebrate divorces, with divorce parties gaining popularity, signaling a

00:16:00.380 cultural shift towards viewing divorce as empowerment rather than stigma. Well, that's not good when

00:16:05.740 that's happening. By the way, I noticed here when I was reading like on X, you know, the whole like

00:16:11.020 X Twitter thing, like the naming of it, I feel like X is actually gaining traction and becoming a bit

00:16:16.220 normalized now. Yeah. I think we're getting used to it. Finally. It sounds cooler than Twitter and more

00:16:22.460 masculine. It's like, it's like when they rebrand, like, like diet Coke to Coke Zero.

00:16:27.020 Yeah. Okay. Was drinking it. That's what I feel like it was from Twitter to X. It's a version of

00:16:32.780 Twitter that's like manly. Even the logo looks like one of those manified like shaver logos or

00:16:38.460 something or like, yeah, you know, just so you know that like, if you're uncomfortable using this

00:16:44.140 product as a man, like this is an extra manly product. It's okay now. It's okay.

00:16:50.220 Oh my gosh. Anyway, by the way, I don't know if you've heard, but all of these people have been so

00:16:54.780 proud of their blue checkmark in San Francisco. It became like a common thing to buy these like

00:16:59.500 blue checkmark, like sings like, like tokens for like the site of your house. You know how you would

00:17:04.780 have like a fire ornament in like Philadelphia or something. Oh my gosh. Show like I'm a blue

00:17:09.340 checkmark house. No. And then when Elon bought the platform, they, they all started like freaking

00:17:16.060 out and taking them down and having me, because you know, it costs to get the company to, there's

00:17:21.100 people you could pay. I think it was a hundred thousand, right? To get a blue checkmark for

00:17:24.140 yourself. No, I think you just need to know who to contact and have 10 to a hundred thousand. Yeah.

00:17:28.780 But if you don't know who to contact, there were agents who specialize in getting these.

00:17:33.100 I didn't know anything about that. That's crazy. Yeah. Mutual agreement. Couples can divorce through 1.00

00:17:38.940 civil bureau. If they mutually agree on the terms, including property division and child custody,

00:17:43.820 this process requires a written agreement and is subject to a 30 day cooling off period.

00:17:47.100 litigation. If mutual agreement fails, divorce proceeds through litigation where courts evaluate

00:17:52.140 grounds like adultery, domestic violence, abandonment, or breakdown in mutual affection.

00:17:56.940 Courts often favor mediation to preserve marriages and first time diverse petitioners are frequently

00:18:02.300 denied to maintain quote unquote, social stability. Grounds for divorce. Adultery can influence property

00:18:08.940 division and custody, but is not criminalized. Domestic violence, while a valid ground often requires

00:18:15.260 substantial evidence and cultural biases in courts, hinder women's cases. 0.95

00:18:19.420 Yeah.

00:18:23.020 Not about domestic violence. That that's, that's scary to not be able to get out of a marriage. That's

00:18:29.820 that's like, that is, is, that's not ideal. But again, China is going to pay like,

00:18:35.740 this is only just the beginning of what China is going to start doing as they get desperate.

00:18:39.660 Yeah. So I decided to, to, to go into what else China is doing to increase its fertility rate. There

00:18:46.540 you have financial incentives. Childcare subsidies are a key measure indicated to intended to reduce

00:18:53.420 the financial burden of families. Reports from March, 2025 highlight these subsidies as part of

00:18:58.220 a broader strategy discussed at China's political meetings, aiming to hit economic gross target at 5%.

00:19:03.420 Free preschool education is another initiative. And then you've got healthcare support, expanded state

00:19:08.300 health care support for childbirths and improved pediatric services designed to lower medical

00:19:12.700 expenses. Social measures, encouraging marriage is seen as a precursor to higher birth rates. Notably,

00:19:18.540 Shangdang Suning chemical group issued a memo in 2025, requiring unmarried workers aged 28 to 58,

00:19:25.660 including divorced individuals to marry by September 30 as their face termination, framing non-marriage as

00:19:32.700 disloyalty.

00:19:33.900 Oh, what? That's insane! Can you imagine the freak out in the United States if suddenly you were going

00:19:39.900 to lose your job for not getting married? And I wonder what sorts of marriages of convenience,

00:19:44.300 complete sham marriages this is going to produce. Like, this is the kind of policy that just is going to

00:19:48.460 backfire. It's not going to get people to marry for the right reasons. And this is something we talk

00:19:52.620 about with prenatalist policy a lot. It has to be endogenous. It can't be exogenous. You can't

00:19:57.660 force it upon people. It has to come from within. And if you don't fix your culture,

00:20:01.100 if you don't fix hope for the future, you're not going to do that.

00:20:03.420 Yeah. The group reversed this, by the way. They didn't, they, they, they, I imagine as such,

00:20:08.940 I imagine it was somebody who like had some, like, you know, he's running the company,

00:20:12.060 but he also had some sort of a CCP position. He's like, I know what I'll do to help them with their

00:20:16.460 fertility rate. I'll force everyone in my company to get married. But I can see this becoming more 1.00

00:20:22.140 normalized around the world in the future. Like, this is like the first instance in which

00:20:25.580 are like, Oh my God, can you believe? But I would not be surprised if we actually see quite

00:20:30.220 a lot of that in the future. Yeah, absolutely. Some districts are also considering a three

00:20:37.180 child policy, a shift from a former one child policy to encourage larger families, which they've

00:20:42.220 been doing for a while. What Simone was so silly about our baby. She's being mischievous on purpose, 1.00

00:20:47.100 but in a really sweet way that of course means she's super related to us.

00:20:51.100 Oh no, you made a mischievous baby.

00:20:55.740 Me?

00:20:59.020 I didn't contribute to this.

00:21:01.900 I was not mischievous. I was a very, very well-became child.

00:21:07.500 Okay. So I think that these sorts of changes are things that we're going to expect sort of

00:21:15.820 everywhere in countries where I think one thing that we definitely won't expect is things to get

00:21:21.500 better for women. Give women more autonomy, make it easier for women to divorce, make it easier. Like, 1.00

00:21:26.940 you are not going to see that going forward. And people can be like, Oh, women's right to being rolled 1.00

00:21:31.020 back. And it's like, well, it's basically like we gave you a, like, when I give one of my kids,

00:21:35.500 like a privilege or a toy and I'm like, yeah, but don't do something bad with this.

00:21:39.420 Right.

00:21:39.900 And they immediately go and do something bad with it. That's what women basically did. 1.00

00:21:44.300 This is why you can't have nice things, that kind of thing.

00:21:47.420 Yeah. I'm saying this is what you get.

00:21:50.700 I mean, so I like some things about this. I like that China is looking at regulatory

00:21:57.740 barriers and regulatory bloat and playing with those, with those levers, making it, for example,

00:22:05.820 easier to get married. And I think that in the United States, before things get bad for women, 0.99

00:22:10.700 there are so many nice for everyone things that can be made so much easier that are, for example,

00:22:16.060 related to the executive orders we submitted to the Trump White House. For example, most middle-class

00:22:21.580 couples in the United States are penalized on their taxes for getting married. They pay more

00:22:26.620 in taxes for getting married, which of course didn't incentivize people from getting married.

00:22:31.420 So if we were to remove that tax penalty, we could increase probably our rates of marriage

00:22:36.860 in the United States. Same with things like daycare regulation and car seat regulation,

00:22:42.220 free range child laws. So I think there's so much that can be done. And I like that China is

00:22:46.620 looking at regulation. And I think this is why many people have lauded, like many intellectuals online

00:22:51.660 are lauding what China is doing. So like, oh, look, like they're trying to play with levers of

00:22:55.900 policy to really address demographic lapse, which is a super big deal. But I don't think they're doing,

00:23:01.820 they're not doing it in a way where I feel like it's going to make enough of a difference.

00:23:05.500 And they're also not making life materially better for people who choose to create families in a way that

00:23:12.460 gets them excited or makes them like, I don't see how this is going to make it easier for couples who 0.85

00:23:17.740 want to have more kids to do so. And making it scarier to get married, which is, you know, just

00:23:25.100 just making it easier to get married. I don't think it's now going to address the chilling effect that

00:23:29.660 has been placed on marriage by what will be like a lot of social media campaigns of like, I can't get

00:23:35.020 out of this abusive relationship because of China's evil misogynistic laws. And then women are like, 1.00

00:23:40.060 well, I'm just never going to get married because that's obviously a scam. Now that's

00:23:43.740 obviously to trap me. And once I'm in, I can't get out and the government's out to get me for this.

00:23:47.900 So I think this is going to backfire. And as much as I love the general concept and you know,

00:23:53.180 the spirit it's, it's so sweet, but it's wrong. And this is really going to hurt them in the end.

00:23:58.540 Well, it's funny that you say that because they're already working on solutions.

00:24:02.140 Oh yeah.

00:24:02.860 One is the national committee of Chinese people's political

00:24:05.820 consultative conference, or the CPPCC,

00:24:10.700 rolls off the tongue, lowering the legal age of marriage from 22 for men and 20 for women to 18,

00:24:18.300 aiming to quote unquote, unleash reproductive potential.

00:24:21.420 I got China really did not like families and children. I mean, you can get married in the US 1.00

00:24:26.780 when you're 18. You don't have to go to your local province to get married in the United States. So

00:24:31.740 it's really insane to me. I think in a lot of, not a lot of, in a few of the Southern states,

00:24:36.540 age of consent is as low as 14. If you have been married by that age, which you need your parents' 0.93

00:24:42.220 permission to marry. Right. But you need your parents' permission to marry. Right.

00:24:45.580 Yeah. Of course they've got safeguards in place.

00:24:49.740 As long as mommy and daddy say it's okay.

00:24:55.820 But yeah, one of my favorite things is they've been changing a lot of the statues.

00:24:58.940 It used to have like one child and now they're putting in like...

00:25:01.100 Yeah, suddenly a child has appeared. Child number three, child number two.

00:25:05.020 Yeah. Oh, look at this.

00:25:05.900 Yeah.

00:25:08.780 It's hilarious.

00:25:09.580 But that's what we need to do is start making pro-natalist propaganda art with AI and spamming

00:25:16.220 the world with it. They just put it all over our house.

00:25:19.180 Someone on X has been trying to do that. They created an image of the Mona Lisa with a baby.

00:25:24.780 Isn't there speculation that the Mona Lisa either is pregnant or recently postpartum?

00:25:29.900 Anyway. I don't know.

00:25:31.660 What makes you... What was the speculation from?

00:25:34.940 Art historians? Am I crazy? Hold on. Mona Lisa...

00:25:42.540 Pregnant. 0.88

00:25:48.220 There we go.

00:25:48.780 The theory that Mona Lisa was pregnant is a popular but unproven speculation. In 2006,

00:25:55.660 researchers used high-resolution imaging techniques to study the painting. They found evidence of a

00:26:00.060 subtle veil around the subject's neck, which is similar to veils worn by pregnant women in the

00:26:04.460 Renaissance period. Additionally, the subject's face appears slightly fuller and her hair is

00:26:08.620 slightly disheveled, which could be signs of pregnancy. Okay, that's pushing it. I get you.

00:26:13.420 That's pushing it, Simone. You crazy bee. 1.00

00:26:17.180 Fine. Fine. Whatever. 0.99

00:26:20.540 Anyway. Well, what are we doing for dinner tonight?

00:26:23.100 I was going to do more of your pineapple mango curry. A little bit more. You can have that with

00:26:32.060 either hash browns or rice or naan.

00:26:35.580 Whatever is easy. Or plantains, which I can try to spice this time.

00:26:39.100 No, the plantains are so gross last time.

00:26:40.940 You asked for it. I know, and we tried it, and it wasn't good. It wasn't that you did a bad job

00:26:46.780 cooking them. I just forgot how tasteless they are. I thought they tasted a little bit of banana. I was

00:26:51.900 like, oh, that would be interesting. Instead, it's probably better to do something like banana rice.

00:26:56.540 Or just to like pan fry banana.

00:27:00.220 Yeah.

00:27:01.180 Or caramelize it. If you take a blowtorch to sugar on top of a banana, you get sort of this

00:27:07.180 banana creme brulee. You get that caramelized sugar.

00:27:09.500 You know what I think would taste pretty interesting is if you blended a banana and

00:27:13.580 mixed it with rice before cooking the rice to create banana rice.

00:27:18.940 If you want me to do that, Malcolm.

00:27:20.540 Am I murdering you as my culinary genius?

00:27:28.060 I'm, you know, for you, I'll try. I'll try.

00:27:32.060 Have I annoyed you to death?

00:27:33.740 Never. You charm me.

00:27:34.860 You charm me too.

00:27:35.500 You are amazing. And the interview we did before this was ABC went pretty well.

00:27:39.900 No, that was with USA Today.

00:27:41.420 For USA Today.

00:27:44.940 By the way, I had a tick crawling on me during the interview that I had to flick off and not

00:27:48.460 share too much.

00:27:49.580 Oh my gosh.

00:27:51.260 Is it crawling around in your room?

00:27:55.020 Crawling on my hand. It probably crawled on from the jacket that I put back on

00:27:59.020 after, you know, for filming.

00:28:02.620 Yeah, definitely. We'll check for ticks.

00:28:04.700 We'll be right back.

00:28:07.260 We'll be right back.

00:28:09.260 We'll be right back.

00:28:10.540 They clamped down hard on the ladies' rights. 1.00

00:28:15.740 In lands where the birth rates fade from sight.

00:28:20.700 China's cribs are empty.

00:28:23.500 The nursery's bare.

00:28:25.900 We warned them, folks, but they didn't care.

00:28:28.860 The culture wars raged.

00:28:35.660 We screamed and we fought.

00:28:38.060 Said freedom for women's a right heart bought. 1.00

00:28:43.100 But when babies don't come, the future's a ghost.

00:28:48.380 We told them, my friends, they'll regret it the most.

00:28:52.220 Oh, we told you so, when the wounds went cold.

00:28:59.020 The warnings we gave, they were brash and bold.

00:29:03.900 If you cage the free, and you kill the spark.

00:29:09.180 Your culture's a grave, just a shot in the dark. 1.00

00:29:14.300 The cities grow quiet, no kids in the streets.

00:29:19.580 The schools shut down, no tiny heartbeats.

00:29:24.460 You can't force a birth with a law or a chain.

00:29:29.580 We said it'd go wrong, now feel the pain.

00:29:35.100 Societies crumble when choice is a crime.

00:29:39.260 No babies, no future, just wasting time.

00:29:44.380 You need love and trust to make life anew.

00:29:49.500 We warned them, oh man, but they never knew.

00:29:53.100 Oh, we told you so, when the wounds went cold.

00:29:59.900 The warnings we gave, they were brash and bold.

00:30:04.860 If you cage the free, and you kill the spark.

00:30:09.980 Your culture's a grave, just a shot in the dark. 1.00

00:30:15.100 Now the old folks sigh, no heirs to their name. 0.99

00:30:20.220 The system's a mess, but who's to blame?

00:30:25.340 You can't breed hope with a fist held tight.

00:30:30.220 We screamed it for years, give women their rights. 1.00

00:30:39.180 The numbers don't lie, the stats are grim.

00:30:44.300 Fertility's tanked, the outlook's dim.

00:30:49.420 If you want a future, let freedom sing. 0.98

00:30:54.540 We told them, god damn, it's a simple thing. 0.98

00:30:59.660 But cultures that bind, they'll fade and they'll fall. 0.99

00:31:04.780 No kids to inherit, no one to call.

00:31:09.900 You can't build the world on control and fear. 1.00

00:31:15.020 We warned them, oh shit, now the end's drawing near. 1.00

00:31:19.500 Oh, we told you so, when the wounds went cold. 1.00

00:31:25.900 The warnings we gave, they were brash and bold.

00:31:30.780 If you cage the free, and you kill the spark.

00:31:35.980 Your culture's a grave, just a shot in the dark. 1.00

00:31:41.260 So raise a glass to the ones who tried.

00:31:46.380 Who begged for choice for the dream up and died.

00:31:51.420 We told you so, yeah we screamed it aloud.

00:31:55.980 Now your empire's dust, just a ghost in the crown.

00:32:00.460 The

00:32:01.500 You

00:32:04.500 The

00:32:04.740 The

00:32:06.600 The

00:32:07.360 The

00:32:08.260 The

00:32:20.220 The

00:32:22.600 Guy

00:32:24.400 The

Based Camp - May 01, 2025

China Changing Marriage Law to Increase Birth Rates

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