Population aging threatens China and therefore families are allowed to have up to three children. The “relaxation” of family planning was decided by the Politburo, the political bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, during a meeting held today, reports the Xinhua news agency.
“To respond to the aging of the population, the country will introduce important policies and measures,” reads the final communiqué of the meeting, hosted by President Xi Jinping. The Politburo stressed that the current fertility rate, equal to 1.3 children per woman, does not allow to maintain a stable level of the population. The results of the seventh national census, carried out in 2020, certified the aging of the population in the country, which for the first time had a higher number of over 60s (264.02 million people) than those under 14 (a share 253.38 million people).
The further easing comes less than six years after the Communist Party’s decision to eliminate the decades-long one-child policy, introduced by former leader Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s to contain population expansion.