Chinese Sperm Banks Are Appealing To College Students To donate Sperm. Here’s Why

China’s population recorded negative growth for the first time in 61 years, decreasing by 850,000 in 2022, official data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) showed in January.

Beijing: Chinese sperm banks are appealing to college students, and healthy men to donate sperm after the country registered a negative population growth for the first time in the past 61 years. China’s population recorded negative growth for the first time in 61 years, decreasing by 850,000 in 2022, official data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) showed in January.

Following these appeals by the sperm banks, China’s Twitter-like social media platform, Weibo, was flooded with reactions and soon became a trending topic. Threads on the topic have been viewed over 240 million times this week.

The Yunnan Human Sperm Bank in southwest China was the first to make an appeal to college students on February 2. The announcement introduced the benefits, registration conditions, subsidies and sperm donation procedures. Soon. other sperm banks across China joined.

“Sperm banks in other places, including northwest China’s Shaanxi (province), have published similar appeals. The public was intrigued and the discussion became heated partly because the appeals were made after China’s population recorded a decrease in 2022, the first decline in six decades,” the state-run tabloid, Global Times, said in a report on Friday.

Who Can Donate Sperm? Here’s the List of Requirements

• According to Yunnan’s sperm bank, donors should be aged between 20 and 40, taller than 165 cm, have no infectious or genetic diseases, and should hold or be pursuing a degree.
• The donor needs to go through a health check and those who qualify will make 8-12 donations, with a subsidy payment of 4,500 yuan ($664)
  The Shaanxi sperm bank wanted donors to be at least 168 cm and said the subsidy for a complete donation would be 5,000 yuan ($734).
• A Shanghai sperm bank had the strictest requirements: Those who did not qualify included the bald, smoked or consumed alcohol and suffered from severe nearsightedness and hypertension.

In 2015, China rolled back its one-child policy allowing all couples to have two children and followed it up In 2021 by allowing couples to have a third child. So far this change has not brought any desired results as the population growth in China is witnessing a negative trend.