China Three Children Policy: ANNOUNCED! REASON behind BIG DECISION? Benefits? Key details here

In a major policy change, China’s Communist Party on Monday announced a relaxation on its child policy from existing two to three children, after recent data portrayed a dramatic decline in births in the world’s most populous country, Reuters reported. 

In order to curb the population in the country, Beijing had imposed a one-child policy per family almost a decade ago, which was eventually changed to a two-child limit to try and stave off risks to its economy from a rapidly ageing population.  

Chinese news agency Xinhua, following a politburo meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping, said, the policy change comes with “supportive measures, which will be conducive to improving our country’s population structure, fulfilling the country’s strategy of actively coping with an ageing population.” 

While changing the child policy, China will now lower educational costs for families, step up tax and housing support, guarantee the legal interests of working women and clamp down on sky-high dowries, Xinhua said in its report, without giving specifics.  

China had a fertility rate of just 1.3 children per woman in 2020, recent data showed, on par with ageing societies like Japan and Italy and far short of the roughly 2.1 needed for replacement level. 

In a poll on Xinhua’s Weibo account asking #AreYouReady for the three-child policy, about 29,000 of 31,000 respondents said they would “never think of it” while others chose among the options such as “I’m ready and very eager to do so”, “it’s on my agenda”, or “I’m hesitating and there’s a lot to consider”, Reuters reported. However, the poll was removed later.  

Meanwhile, the country has also agreed to raise its retirement age to keep more people in the workforce and improve pension and health services for the elderly, Xinhua’s report said. 

The ruling Communist Party of China has enforced birth limits since 1980 to restrain population growth. At present, China’s population is over 1.4 billion, which was expected to peak later this decade and start to decline.