Beijing has announced it will allow all couples to have three children, ending a strict two-child policy that failed to boost China’s declining birth rates.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party has announced it will allow all couples to have up to three children, marking the end of the nation’s strict two-child policy. The change was approved by President Xi Jinping in a Politburo meeting, according to state media outlet Xinhua, after a once-in-a-decade census showed that China’s population grew at its slowest pace in decades under the rule, putting pressure on Beijing to boost measures for couples to have more babies and avert a population decline.
According to the census, around 12 million babies were born last year in China – the lowest number of births recorded since the 1960s and a significant decrease from the 18 million reported in 2016.
The New York Times’China correspondent, Sui-Lee Wee, wrote that the move also reflects “concerns that the rapidly rising number of older people in China could exacerbate a shortage of workers and strain the economy shortly”. Following its meeting, the Politburo – China’s top decision-making body – said the move would come with “supportive measures, which will be conducive to improving our country’s population structure, fulfilling the country’s strategy of actively coping with an aging population and maintaining the advantage, endowment of human resources”.
The “one-child” policy was first imposed in the 1980s to slow population growth and bolster an economic boom that was then beginning.
But by 2013, Chinese officials had begun to understand the implications of the nation’s aging population. They updated the policy to allow parents from one-child families to have as many as two children themselves.
From January 1, 2016, the limit was raised to two children for everyone.
“While the second-child policy had a positive impact on the birthrate, it proved short-term in nature,” The Economist Intelligence Unit principal economist, Ms. Yue Su, told the BBC.
Speaking to The Times, several experts said that while births in China have fallen for four consecutive years, this latest announcement still surprised them.
“This was a bit sudden and earlier than I expected,” independent demographer, He Yafu told the publication.
“The decision-makers have probably realized that the population situation is relatively difficult.”
The announcement drew a chilly response on Chinese social media, though, with many people posting in response to the news that they couldn’t afford tohave one child.
“I am willing to have three children if you give me 5 million yuan ($1.02 million),” one person wrote on the popular platform Weibo. “Don’t they know that most young people are already tired enough just trying to feed themselves?” wrote another, pointing to a common sentiment about the rising living costs.
