In a long-awaited and long-delayed move, China has scrapped its hugely controversial one-child policy, introduced about 35 years ago, allowing couples to have two children. The announcement came after a key meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) yesterday which also approved proposals for China’s next five-year development plan which starts next year.
China will “fully implement a policy of allowing each couple to have two children as an active response to an ageing population”, said a statement issued after the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.
“The change of policy is intended to balance population development and address the challenge of an ageing population,” it added. The proposal must be approved by the top legislature before it is enacted.
With an ageing population and fast-shrinking work force and severe demographic imbalances created by the draconian family planning policy, the new decision has been hailed by many as a positive step, but dismissed by critics as too insufficient to meet the real challenges. The decision to limit the number of children to two has been viewed by human rights activists as a continuation of state control over family life and individual freedom and a denial of fundamental human rights. Data shows that China’s population reached 1.37 billion by the end of last year, and one-tenth were aged 65 or older and their number could rise quickly in coming decades if population growth tails off.
The UN estimates that by 2050 China will have about 440 million people over 60. The working-age population — those between 15 and 59 — fell by 3.71 million last year, a trend that is expected to continue. Demographers have been warning that the country’s low fertility rate — put somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 children a woman — was driving the country towards a demographic crisis.
The one-child policy came into force in the late 1970s, when Deng Xiaoping and other leaders found that China’s growing population threatened to stifle economic growth. Since 2013, there has been a gradual relaxation in the laws that already allowed minority ethnic families and rural couples whose firstborn was a girl to have more than one child.
According to reports, by May this year, about 1.45 million couples had applied to have a second child under the relaxed rules, but that was only about 12 percent of the number eligible. Given the seriousness of the situation, many experts believe that the current policy shift is not enough to tackle the issue of an ageing population.
The Communist party claims that the policy has helped prevent 400m births, thus contributing to China’s dramatic economic boom since the 1980s. However, the policy has led to serious human rights violations such as forced sterilisations, infanticide and sex-selective abortions. The gender imbalance caused by the one-child policy means that millions of young men will never be able to find a wife and the new two-child policy is not likely to address this issue at least in the short run.
In a long-awaited and long-delayed move, China has scrapped its hugely controversial one-child policy, introduced about 35 years ago, allowing couples to have two children. The announcement came after a key meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) yesterday which also approved proposals for China’s next five-year development plan which starts next year.
China will “fully implement a policy of allowing each couple to have two children as an active response to an ageing population”, said a statement issued after the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.
“The change of policy is intended to balance population development and address the challenge of an ageing population,” it added. The proposal must be approved by the top legislature before it is enacted.
With an ageing population and fast-shrinking work force and severe demographic imbalances created by the draconian family planning policy, the new decision has been hailed by many as a positive step, but dismissed by critics as too insufficient to meet the real challenges. The decision to limit the number of children to two has been viewed by human rights activists as a continuation of state control over family life and individual freedom and a denial of fundamental human rights. Data shows that China’s population reached 1.37 billion by the end of last year, and one-tenth were aged 65 or older and their number could rise quickly in coming decades if population growth tails off.
The UN estimates that by 2050 China will have about 440 million people over 60. The working-age population — those between 15 and 59 — fell by 3.71 million last year, a trend that is expected to continue. Demographers have been warning that the country’s low fertility rate — put somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 children a woman — was driving the country towards a demographic crisis.
The one-child policy came into force in the late 1970s, when Deng Xiaoping and other leaders found that China’s growing population threatened to stifle economic growth. Since 2013, there has been a gradual relaxation in the laws that already allowed minority ethnic families and rural couples whose firstborn was a girl to have more than one child.
According to reports, by May this year, about 1.45 million couples had applied to have a second child under the relaxed rules, but that was only about 12 percent of the number eligible. Given the seriousness of the situation, many experts believe that the current policy shift is not enough to tackle the issue of an ageing population.
The Communist party claims that the policy has helped prevent 400m births, thus contributing to China’s dramatic economic boom since the 1980s. However, the policy has led to serious human rights violations such as forced sterilisations, infanticide and sex-selective abortions. The gender imbalance caused by the one-child policy means that millions of young men will never be able to find a wife and the new two-child policy is not likely to address this issue at least in the short run.
