IT HAD been a long time coming. Chinese demographers had been worrying aloud for years about China’s rapidly ageing population and plunging birth rate and the impact these trends would have on the country’s economy. On October 29th the Communist Party finally ended the “one-child policy” that has been widely—often excessively—blamed for exacerbating these problems. Now couples will be allowed to have two. But the party still insists, unlike the government of any other nation, that it has the right to control people’s fertility.
It had already made several adjustments to the policy since it was introduced in 1979. These have long allowed those living in the countryside to have two children under certain conditions—if the first child is a girl, for example. In urban areas, the party allowed couples to have two children if both parents were themselves only children. It relaxed this in 2013, allowing couples to have two if only one parent meets that requirement. Ethnic minorities...Continue reading
Source: China http://ift.tt/1P7GyuZ
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