China now implements “three-child policy”

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Following fears that its population is increasingly ageing, China has opted to amend its family-planning policy.
• Chinese couples can now have up to three children.
• Based on research, a third of China’s population would be composed of the elderly group by 2050.

Chinese state media reported on Monday that China has loosened up its family planning policy, permitting couples to have three children following a census that the nation’s population is promptly ageing.

After nearly four decades, China implemented a “one-child policy” in a bid to control the rise of population. The ruling was amended into “two-child policy” in 2016, following pressing concerns of an ageing labor force and economic struggle.

The country’s annual births steadily declined to a record low of only 12 million in 2020 amid its continuous efforts to urge couples to gain children, according to the monitoring of the National Bureau of Statistics last month.

Given such findings, the ruling Communist Party of Chinese President Xi Jinping is worried over experts’ predictions that by 2050, young workers would need to economically sustain the lives of hundreds of millions of elderly.

“To actively respond to the ageing of the population, a couple can have three children,” Xinhua news agency reported, referring to a Monday meeting of China’s elite Politburo leadership committee facilitated by the president.

The National Bureau of Statistics said that the country’s fertility rate is at 1.3, lower than the needed rate to sustain the population.

Last year’s census also found that China’s population reached its most stagnant rate with a 1.41 billion population, slowest rate since the 1960’s.

The findings came amid a significant dip in figures belonging to the working-age population as the country expressed worries over its demographic crisis. Even with the “two-child policy” being enforced in 2016, it did not contribute well to the increase of population.

Other factors that paved the way for slower birth rates include failed marriage rates in recent years, as well as growing standard of living and rise of educated and empowered women, who opted to delay or prevent giving birth.

A third of Chinese is forecast to be elderly by 2050, heaping huge pressure on the state to provide pensions and healthcare. Beijing warned that this demographic issue would yield a crucial political and economic impact for the country.

Source: Yahoo News