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China to end one-child policy
Reports claim that China is to abandon its controversial one-child policy and allow couples to have two children instead
China has decided to end the three decades-long one-child policy according to the Xinhua news agency.
According to Bloomberg, President Xi Jinping has rolled out his blueprint to manage the economy’s shift to slower, more balanced growth, and the decision means that couples will be allowed to have two children.
The decision came at the end of a four-day party gathering in Beijing, after months of speculation that the country was preparing to abandon the rule.
The policy was introduced in 1978 and enacted in 1980, as a response to social, economic and environmental problems in the country.
China’s Communist rulers credit their policy with preventing 400 million births but the draconian regulation has also been blamed for millions of forced abortions, the Guardian adds.
Critics say the policy has created a demographic “timebomb” with China’s 1.3 billion-strong population ageing rapidly, and the country’s labour pool shrinking, as the UN estimates that by 2050 China will have nearly 440 million over-60s.
