China’s ruling Communist Party made a historical decision to abandon its one-child-per-couple policy and allow couples to have two children instead.
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However, the proposal must be approved by the top legislature before it is enacted, Xinhua news agency reported.
Hampshire College professor Kay Ann Johnson, the author of a forthcoming book on China’s one-child policy, said allowing families to have two children is a significant step, but she would rather see China end the restrictions entirely, given how low its birth rate has fallen.
In 2013, after over 30 years of controversy, Chinese leaders scaled back on the policy for around one-third of the population – couples in which one parent is an only child – a fairly small proportion of China’s population.
But it argued the family planning ruled had “managed to control China’s birth rate, alleviating China’s burden in resources and giving impetus to its economic takeoff”. “People should have the right to decide how many children they have”. In 2012 alone, official statistics show 6.7 million women in China were forced to have abortions under the one-child policy.
The outcasts Many who wanted more than one child, especially those with means, found a way around the official rules, such as by having babies overseas or paying fines to have their children registered with the government.
“It won’t have any impact on the issue of the aging society, but it will change the character of many young families”, Wang said. Prior to that time, only rural couples whose first child is female, and couples of ethnic minorities were allowed to have a second child.
Right now, the country could have the most number of elderly in the world in 15 years, with those over 60 numbering to at least 400 million.
News outlets publish analyses and reactions to the announcement that China will drop its one-child policy and replace it with a two-child policy.
The policy will not officially change until the Chinese legislature approves it, but many Chinese couples are already excited to grow their families.
“Scrapping the one-child policy is positive for companies producing baby products, including milk and diapers”, said Naohiro Niimura, partner at researcher Market Risk Advisory in Tokyo.
According to Lu Jiehua, a sociologist at Peking University, the policy will affect 100 million couples. People who didn’t want to have more will not have more kids.
There are no immediate details on when the new policy will be implemented.
But the change met a “lukewarm response”, said Joan Kaufman, director of the Columbia Global Centers East Asia and a long-time expert on China’s population planning.
After taking power in 1949, the Communist government promoted big families but in the late 1970s it introduced the “one-child policy” as a way to keep the population from spiraling out of control.
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Americans are still vastly richer today than Chinese people, with a per capita income more than five times greater than the latter.
