This decision comes after recent data showed a dramatic decline in births in the world’s most populous country.
In a major policy shift, the Chinese government on Monday relaxed its family planning policy, allowing couples to have three children, instead of the existing two, reported state media Xinhua.
This decision comes after recent data showed a dramatic decline in births in the world’s most populous country.
A ruling party meeting led by Chinese President Xi Jinping decided to introduce “measures to actively deal with the aging population,” the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said they agreed that ”implementing the policy of one couple can have three children and supporting measures are conducive to improving China’s population structure.”
Leaders also agreed China needs to raise its retirement age to keep more people in the workforce and improve pension and health services, Xinhua said.
Restrictions that limited most couples to one child were eased in 2015 to allow two, but the total number of births fell further, suggesting rule changes on their own have had little impact on the trend.
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Leaders at Monday’s meeting agreed it is “necessary to steadily implement the gradual postponement of the legal retirement age,” Xinhua said.
Earlier this month, China’s once-in-a-decade census showed that the country’s population grew at its slowest in the last decade since the 1950s as births declined, sowing doubt over Beijing’s ability to power its economy as it succumbs to the same aging trends afflicting developed nations like Japan.
Despite government efforts to encourage childbirths, China’s annual births have continued to plummet to a record low of 12 million in 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics said last month.
China’s fertility rate stands at 1.3 — below the level needed to maintain a stable population, the bureau revealed.
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