The decision was contained in a Communist Party communique that followed a meeting of the party’s Central Committee on planning the country’s economic and social development through 2020. The policy shift is the result of China experiencing low fertility rates and an aging population. Younger generations also feel less compelled to accept high levels of state involvement in their private lives. Critics said the relaxation of rules was too little, and too late to redress substantial negative effects of the one-child policy on the economy and society. “Change it quick!” a female commenter said on the microblogging platform Weibo. The organization said it has continued to receive reports of coerced abortions – which are illegal – and sterilizations in recent years.
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China has lifted its renowned population control method – the one-child policy – because of realizations of an aging populace.
Despite criticism from outside China – and occasionally from within – the country’s leaders stuck with the controversial policy, often ignoring the plight of mothers having to resort to abortions or being forced to have their children adopted. “People in rural farming villages may be more interested”.
Chinese citizens reacted with an outpouring of support on social media. They were given the right to opt for a second child. “I thought it was so unfair”, Su said.
Others were excited the change had finally been made.
One thing the Chinese couldn’t ignore though was that China’s population was still swelling. “The day has finally come”. By the end of 2014 China had a population of 212 million people who were over 60 years of age.
China’s population – the world’s largest at 1.37 billion – is now ageing rapidly, gender imbalances are severe, and its workforce is shrinking.
China announced an earlier loosening of the policy in 2013, allowing couples where only one was an only child to have a second offspring.
Chen Guangcheng, one of China’s best-known activists who fled to the United States, on Thursday criticized Beijing for not going far enough in abolishing its one-child policy. Of those, 48,392 couples were approved.
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Experts say the policy is unlikely to spike China’s population because most families are unable to afford a second child. “The increase is not likely to be large, though”, says Adrian Raftery, a population statistician at the University of Washington in Seattle.
