New Delhi, March 30 -- China's falling birthrate has long been treated as a macro problem: fewer workers, more retirees, slower growth. Now Beijing is trying to turn it into a spending category.

This year, the government committed to building a "childbirth-friendly society" over the next five years, bundling support across healthcare, income, education, housing, and child-care. Official estimates put the 2026 cost of the measures at around 180 billion yuan, or roughly $25 billion.

That includes a national child-care subsidy and a pledge that women will face no out-of-pocket costs during pregnancy, with medical expenses, including fertility treatments, folded into the national insurance system.

None of this will engineer a baby boom. Ch...