China’s ruling communist party on Monday announced that it will allow couples to have up to three children. The decision marks a major shift in its policy from the existing limit of two kids, which had failed to arrest Country’s aging population and shrinking birthrate. The latest move is aimed at addressing China’s impending demographic crisis that threatens the communist state’s long-term economic prospects.
The policy change was approved during a politburo meeting on Monday chaired by President Xi Jinping, the official news agency Xinhua reported, without saying when the change takes effect. The partys said, the decision would “help improve our country’s population structure and help implement a national strategy to actively respond to the aging population”, acording to a report in the New York Times.
Early this month, China’s once-in-a-decade census showed that the population grew at its slowest rate during the last decade since the 1950s, with data showing a fertility rate of 1.3 children per woman for 2020 alone, on par with ageing societies like Japan and Italy.
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In 2016, China scrapped its decades-old one-child policy — initially imposed to halt a population explosion — with a two-child limit, which failed to result in a sustained surge in births as the high cost of raising children in Chinese cities deterred many couples from starting families
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