Debating the Two-child Policy on Sina Weibo: A Study of Social Media as Symbolic Space in China

The two-child policy profoundly impacted on many aspects of Chinese society, ranging from population structure to economic development. Social media served as a public symbolic space for diverse viewpoints on the issue. Situated in a revised public sphere framework, this study explores how the two-child policy was contended by various publics using a semantic network analysis of Sina Weibo posts. The results demonstrate relationships among the various publics comprising family members, gendered individuals, and multiple social institutions. Our findings have important implications for understanding reproduction, gender and social relations, and social media’s role as a symbolic space in contemporary China.