China allow couples to have up to three children, official media said on Monday, amid concerns that the number of working-age people in the world’s most populous country is declining too quickly.
The announcement comes as census statistics revealed that China’s working-age population has shrunk in the last decade, while the number of individuals over 65 has increased, putting further burden on the economy and society. Experts have cautioned that China’s lofty economic ambitions may be jeopardized by the weakest growth in decades.
Birth policies will be improved much further. According to Xinhua, a policy allowing a couple to have three children would be implemented together with accompanying measures, which will enhance China’s demographic structure.
Since 1980, the Communist Party has set birth limitations to control population growth, and the country’s falling population is partly due to the contentious one-child policy enacted in 1979. Couples who disobeyed the country’s family planning rules risked losing their jobs and facing fines. Mothers were compelled to abort their newborns or be sterilized in some situations.
The liberalization of policy, on the other hand, failed to reverse the country’s dropping birthrate. According to the 2020 census, mothers gave birth to 12 million infants last year, down from 14.65 million the previous year, a drop of 18% year on year and extending China’s plunge to a near six-decade low.
Meanwhile, The new policy’s implementation date has yet to be determined.
