Yahoo News China 'considering scrapping all limits' on number of children per family
China is considering scrapping the limits it places on how many children families can have, ending one of history's most intrusive and controversial social experiments, a report has claimed.
China's cabinet, the State Council, has commissioned research to explore what effects such a move would have, and an announcement could be made later this year or in 2019, Bloomberg News said.
Authorities scrapped the infamous 'one child policy' in 2016, a move which Beijing hoped would kickstart a baby boom and ward off the looming demographic time-bomb.
Communist Party chiefs launched a propaganda blitz urging prospective mothers to “seize the time and conceive”.
But busy younger mothers in urban areas - where the new rules mainly applied - turned their backs on having a second child. Also, a two-child limit remained in place for many.
The relaxation in family planning laws consequently failed to have a significant impact on falling birthrates, causing a major headache for leaders.
Figures showed only one million more babies were born in 2016 than 2015.
Chinese experts expect the country’s working population — estimated by the government to be 998.3 million people by the end of 2016— to drop by around 40 million by 2030.
By 2050, 30 per cent of Chinese will be age 60 or over, the United Nations estimates, versus 20 per cent worldwide and 10 per cent in China in the year 2000.
China launched its one child policy in the late 1970s as Beijing sought to stem a rapidly growing population, and officials still claim it has been a major factor behind the country’s growing prosperity.
But the draconian family planning laws - which are often enforced through intrusive forms of contraception and even forced abortions - have been widely condemned by human rights campaigners.
The one-child policy also contributed to a sharp gender imbalance, with 32.66 million more males than females at the end of 2017.
