TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An opinion article calling for Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members to have no less than three children created a storm in China on Wednesday (Dec. 8) before being promptly taken down from the country’s internet.

“No party member should use any excuse, objective or personal, to not marry or have children, nor can they use any excuse to have only one or two children,” read the article, first published last month by China Reports Network, according to a South China Morning Post (SCMP) report on the matter.

“Every CCP member should shoulder the responsibility and obligation of the country’s population growth and act on the three-child policy,” it went on. The article even contained instructions for those CCP members who are unable to procreate:

It said members who cannot reproduce due to age or other conditions should “educate, guide and assist family members and friends to proactively have three children,” per SCMP.

“(Party members) should never do nothing when family and friends are not getting married or giving birth, and should never be indifferent about them only having one or two children with any excuse,” the opinion piece said.

Thousands of users on Weibo left comments ridiculing the article. Some users brought up China’s Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women — a law that safeguards and individual's freedom to choose to have children.

Despite it being taken down by censors, screenshots of the article have been shared widely on social media. There have also copies of the article saved in files on cloud-based servers.

CCP ranks have been slowly swelling over the years. As of June 2021, the CCP has more than 95 million members, accounting for roughly 6.73% of China’s total population, up from 5.99% in 2010, according to Statistica.

If all CCP members were forced to have at least three children, the party’s numbers could skyrocket within another generation. It is too early to tell whether this will become a fully-fledged policy though, with prominent China watchers are still speculating on where it could lead.

In the latest edition of the Sinocism newsletter, Bill Bishop weighed up the likelihood with this comment:

“I do not believe there is an official policy of procreation targets for Party members, at least not yet,” he wrote. “But it is believable enough that a lot of people got worked up about it.”