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China to allow couples to have 3rd child amid low birthrate
China's population has been aging, due largely to its "one-child policy" introduced in 1979, but it was scrapped in 2016 as worries grew that a rapidly aging population would constrain the nation's economic expansion.
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Students recite a poem by China's late Chairman Mao Zedong on the 125th anniversary of Mao's birthday, at a primary school in Liaocheng, Shandong province, China Dec. 26, 2018. (Reuters/Stringer)
T
he ruling Chinese Communist Party has decided to allow the country's married couples to have a third child, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday, in a major policy change to grapple with the negative effects of the low birthrate.
China's population has been aging, due largely to its "one-child policy" introduced in 1979, but it was scrapped in 2016 as worries grew that a rapidly aging population would constrain the nation's economic expansion.
Although the government has permitted all married couples to have a second child since then, China has not seen a baby boom so far despite fears that a possible shrinkage of the population could undermine economic development.
The latest policy change was approved during a politburo meeting of the ruling party, chaired by President Xi Jinping, Xinhua said.
"Implementing the policy and its relevant supporting measures will help improve China's population structure, actively respond to the aging population, and preserve the country's human resource advantages," the news agency quoted the meeting as saying.
Earlier this month, government data showed the total population on the Chinese mainland grew to 1.41 billion in 2020 but the proportion of those aged 60 or older also increased.
The release by the National Bureau of Statistics of the population data based on a once-a-decade census came as the nation's population is expected to begin falling in the few years, ending a five-decade trend of growth.
If the population decreases in China, it would be the first since the catastrophic Great Leap Forward from 1958 through the early 1960s, regarded as a misguided economic policy initiated by Mao Zedong, caused millions of people to starve at home.
In 2020, the population was 1,411.78 million, compared with 1,400.05 million in 2019. It grew annually by 0.53 percent on average over the past decade, according to the data.
Chinese people aged 60 and over accounted for 18.7 percent of the total population, 5.44 percentage points higher than the level in 2010, when the previous census was conducted.
