China's ruling Communist Party will relax birth limitations to allow couples to have three children instead of two to stave off risks to its economy from a rapidly aging population. It follows census data that displayed China's working-age population diminished from the previous decade as the number of individuals older than 65 increased.
China's yearly births are on the decline. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, it fell to a record low of 12 million in 2020. It poses a potential demographic crisis as too few people of working age can support the expected hundreds of millions of elderly citizens by 2050. It has alarmed the ruling Communist Party spearheaded by Chinese President Xi Jinping, reported Aljazeera.
Women Need More Support to Birth More Children
In an interview with Reuters, Zhang Xinyu, a 30-year-old tourist from Zhenzhou and a mother of one, offered a possible explanation for declining birth rates. She said, "it's mostly women bearing the responsibility of raising children, for the most part. And this society hasn't provided women with much support. So actually, if men could do more to raise the child, or if families could give more consideration for women who had just had children, actually a lot of women would be able to have a second child. Because it would be a bit better if a child has siblings. But thinking of the big picture, realistically, I don't want to have a second child. And a third is even more impossible."
China is trying to address the economic impact of an aging society. According to a statement in Xinhua News Agency, it was underscored they would impose a delay in retirement age. The agency also stated that allowing all couples to have three children and imposing related support policies will help bolster the population's structure.
Boost to Population Structure
In a meeting with the CPC leadership on Monday, including Xi, guidelines to actively address the aging of the population in the following five years were discussed.
Party leaders underscored implementing the policy of one couple having three children, optimizing the fertility policy, and supporting measures conducive to bolstering the population structure.
Birth limits in China were initially introduced in 1980 to limit population growth, reported People. Restrictions for most couples to only have one child were eased in 2015 to allow all to have two. Following a brief rise the next year, birth rates continued to fall.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China's fertility rate stands at 1.3. This is below the level required to maintain a stable population. The 2020 census results also published in April showed that China's population grew at its slowest rate since the 1960s. It reached 1.41 billion, while the number of people of working age significantly dropped.
