“These days, few women or families opt to have three children,” said Herald van der Linde, head of equity strategy for Asia Pacific at HSBC Holdings Plc. “The issue is high childcare costs, employment discrimination against women in childbearing age, lack of childcare in the workplace etc. And all sorts of policies have been thrown at families to have more babies in other countries -- even cash handouts -- but often with little effect.”... The policy change was quickly mocked on Chinese social media, with many people lamenting the fact that couples from single-child households would now have to raise three children while supporting four elderly parents and repay heavy mortgage debt. It also triggered concern over women’s employment, with some saying that it will become even harder for females to get a job as companies are unlikely to be willing to shoulder the costs. “For those people who are rich, relaxing the policy will encourage them to have more children but for the common citizens, like the middle class or even the lower class, they don’t have enough incentive to make use of this new policy,” said Vivian Zhan, an associate professor of Chinese politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.