I think THEY think it is about birth rates, but they are mistaken, and this will backfire, I predict.

One of the huge demographic issues in China is the excess male population, or rather, the extremely overt lack of females. This was brought about as a direct result of the "one-child" policy the communists instituted a generation ago. They failed (as all centrist planners do) to predict the obvious outcome of their "well meaning" law. Gender-based abortions despite being made swiftly illegal when the practice became noticed, were commonly performed to guarantee male heirs for families trying to cope with the notion that they could only have one child, period.

Despite extreme efforts to stop this practice, China never managed because the necessity of a son was so great the people in great numbers went to any length to ensure it.

The result was the generation that came of age in the 90s-00s whom were so skewed male it is beyond laughable that we in the west think we have an 'incel' problem. Try existing in a population with a gender ratio that ensures your chances of finding a mate is less than being struck by lightning twice.

Effeminate males are as much a coping strategy for this generation of Chinese as it is any sort of western influence they might blame it on. These men are finding comfort in each other because there are literally no women to be had.

If the Chinese government want to quash that release valve, then they are soliciting revolutionary sentiment. There are few things humans will naturally value above their own lives, but food, family, and romance are close to that cut-off point.

Why would they do this, then? The same reason they ban video games. They are blind authoritarians who don't understand how important it is for anyone, but men especially, to have a relief. Relief of fun, relief of sex. It's all debauchery in the eyes of the dictator who is satisfied in his palace, but it's a dire imposition for the serfs who are just trying to cope.