A pet dog sits in a stroller at a pet store in Beijing, China in April. China’s pet market is projected to reach 404.2-billion Chinese yuan by 2027.Tingshu Wang/Reuters
China’s most prominent protest in years was sparked not by a demand for greater democracy or allegations of corruption, but puppies.
Earlier this month, hundreds of people gathered in downtown Chongqing outside the apartment of a man accused of torturing and killing animals and selling the videos online. Even as police made arrests and censors sought to rein in discussion of the alleged cruelty on social media, protesters continued to turn up until the authorities announced they had detained the man, surnamed Li.
Just what he will be charged with is unclear: China’s animal protection law does not apply to pets, a loophole activists and lawmakers say should have been closed decades ago. Millions have signed a petition demanding a change to the law.
Writing on her Substack, commentator Cindy Yu said that as China’s middle class grows, activism around “luxury causes” such as animal rights and environmentalism will grow as well, just as it has done in the West.
Beyond this, however, the Chongqing protests are also emblematic of how increasingly central pets have become to Chinese life − and how much more so they may become as the country’s birth rate plummets.
“Why are so many people in China raising pets now?” said Li Jingyuan, the founder of AI-driven animal translator PettiChat. “I think it’s largely because young people − whether due to consumption power, financial situation or work-life balance − find it hard to have enough time and energy to raise a child.”
China recorded 7.92 million births in 2025, less than half the number a decade ago. In the next 10 years, the country will lose nearly 60 million people, about the population of France. The effects of that demographic shift will be exacerbated by the legacy of China’s notorious one-child policy, which has left many working-age Chinese supporting two parents and four grandparents by themselves.
Visitors push their dogs around the Hong Kong Pet Show in January. Researchers found that pet owners were more likely than non-pet owners to have children.PETER PARKS/Getty Images
No longer the world’s most populous country − China now trails still-growing India − births are in line with much of the rest of East Asia, home to three of the lowest birth rates in the world: 4.26 per 1,000 people in Taiwan, 4.86 in South Korea and 5.16 in Hong Kong. (In Canada it is 8.93.)
In Taiwan, pets outnumber children under 15, as they do in Japan, and that may soon be the case in far more populous China.
While reports often link falling birth rates to rising pet ownership, and some − including the late Pope Francis − have accused young people of choosing dogs and cats over babies, research suggests this is not true.
By comparing pet and birth registration data, Taiwanese researchers found that pet owners, particularly those with dogs, were more likely than non-pet owners to have children, with the animals acting as a sort of dry run for parenthood.
Anecdotal data supports this. Sun Yifu, the founder of Shanghai pet bakery OneSeventh, said, “Traditionally, our parents’ generation might have had children at 23 or 24.
“But nowadays in Shanghai, the average age of becoming a parent is 30 or above,” he said. “So between the age of 20, when someone graduates and has financial capability, and their early 30s, although they haven’t had children, they still have the emotional need to nurture and care for something.”
Wu Qian, a Shanghai-based animation designer, said she had never “really considered having children,” but after getting a Bichon Frisé puppy earlier this year, she experienced something “similar to the responsibilities our parents had when we were children.
“For example, when he was little, I wanted him to gain weight quickly. Now that he’s a year and a half old, I want to enroll him in some pet classes so he can socialize and develop relationships with other animals − things I’ve experienced myself and want him to experience as well,” she said.
A kindergarten for dogs in Shanghai, China in June.Nicoco Chan/Reuters
The Taiwanese study hinted at the real reason potential parents choose not to have children: cost. While countries across East Asia have rolled out subsidies, tax breaks and bonuses for new parents, they often don’t come close to the expense of child care, schooling or health care.
Meanwhile, many women fear losing out on hard-won freedoms if they exit the work force even temporarily.
(Very few countries have turned birth rates around via handouts, and most developed countries, including Canada, rely on immigration to maintain population growth.)
Even pricey, spoiled pets don’t come close to the cost − or potential earning disruption − of children, leaving childless pet owners with plenty of money to spend on their “fur babies” and driving a boom in the so-called pet economy across the region.
China’s pet market is projected to reach 404.2-billion Chinese yuan ($84-billion) by 2027, according to the state-run Global Times. This includes pet food and vet bills, but also clothes, beds, Mr. Sun’s luxury baked goods and more niche tech products such as Mr. Li’s PettiChat, which purports to allow owners to “actually understand what your furry sidekick is trying to tell you.”
“I believe the pet market will continue to grow rapidly over the next decade,” Mr. Li said.
Ms. Wu said she spends between 2,000 and 4,000 Chinese yuan ($418 to $836) a month on her dog and estimated that about 80 per cent of her friends, married and not, have dogs or cats.
The boom in pet ownership is increasingly visible across the region − it is for the most part an urban phenomenon, but then most Chinese live in cities now − where visitors have long joked that you’re just as likely to see a dog as a baby in a stroller. In Hong Kong, the authorities have opened up parks to dogs and will soon allow pets inside restaurants, on buses and on the city’s subway system.
In his most recent annual policy address, Hong Kong chief executive John Lee said one of the government’s priorities is to “promote a pet-friendly culture.”
Stated or not, much of the rest of East Asia is following suit.
With reports from Alexandra Li in Beijing