The announcement came at the end of a major meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in Beijing, held to discuss and approve economic and social policies for the 13th five-year plan (2016-2020).
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State news agency Xinhua announced the news in a surprise “China abandons one-child policy” tweet Thursday afternoon.
“China will fully implement the policy of “one couple, two children” in a proactive response to the issue of an aging population”.
The new Two child policy means that if one of the parent isan only child, then the couple will be allowed to have a second child. Under this policy, approximately 11 million couples in China are allowed to have a second child.
Nationwide, almost 1 million couples eligible under the new rules had applied to have a second child, state media reported at the time.
“China has already begun to feel an unfolding crisis in terms of its population change”, Wang Feng, a professor at Fudan University and a leading demographic expert on China, told McKenzie earlier this year.
But, as the South China Morning Post noted back in 2012, citing academic studies, a two-child policy still won’t effectively boost China’s birth rate.
China’s previous “one-child” family planning regime, which Beijing announced Thursday would end after a few four decades, has seen arbitrary and often brutal enforcement, including forced abortions and sterilization of a few. Chinese authorities last move to loosen the family planning policy was in late 2013.
But the decision to abolish the one-child policy would only delay the fiscal problem, rather than fix it, she said. The primary reason for this is that more families are considering the cost of having more than one child, and not everyone can afford to have many children.
One Child Policy was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for water and other resources. This is important, because global market research company Euromonitor worldwide estimates China will lose its position as the world’s largest population to India by 2025, with its working-age population set to go into continuing decline from next year as India’s rises strongly.
Wu, the young woman in Zhuhai, said prior to the policy change, she would have been fined 200,000 yuan (about $31,500) if she had a second child.
Even if there is a mini baby boom as a result of the policy shift, it will be almost two decades before the children enter the workforce.
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Despite the relaxation of these rules, many Chinese may still opt to have just one child since single child households have now become the accepted social norm.
