After 41 years of birth limits, China to allow couples to have three children

  • 12 Jun - 18 Jun, 2021
  • Mag The Weekly
  • Mag Files

The Communist Party of China (CPC) is easing the country's birth limits and allowing couples to have three children as the current population ages rapidly. A meeting with the CPC leadership – including President Xi Jinping – was held to discuss "measures to actively address the aging of the population" over the next five years. Married couples will now be able to have up to three children with government support provided. The announcement comes over five years after China ended its longstanding one-child policy and allowed couples to have two children. Birth limits in China were first introduced in 1980 in order to restrain population growth. A census released earlier this month showed that, despite the eased birth restrictions, only 12 million babies were born in China last year. It marked the fourth year in a row with a falling birth rate. "Evidence in other countries suggests that, once [the] birthrate is on a downward trend, it is difficult to … reverse it," said Zhang Zhiwei, chief economist at Chinese hedge fund Pinpoint Asset Management.

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