THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 31, 2021 at 17:20 JST
In this May 3 file photo, a man and child wearing masks visit Tiananmen Gate near the portrait of Mao Zedong in Beijing. (AP Photo)
BEIJING--China’s ruling Communist Party will ease birth limits to allow all couples to have three children instead of two in response to the population’s rising age, a state news agency said Monday.
The announcement follows census data that showed China’s working-age population shrank over the past decade while the number of people older than 65 rose, adding to strain on the economy and society.
The ruling party has enforced birth limits since 1980 to restrain population growth but worries the number of working-age people is falling too fast.
A meeting Monday of the ruling party’s Politburo decided “China will introduce major policies and measures to actively deal with the aging population,” the Xinhua News Agency said.
Party leaders “pointed out that further optimizing the fertility policy, implementing the policy of one couple can have three children and supporting measures are conducive to improving China’s population structure,” the report said.
Restrictions that limited most couples to one child were eased in 2015 to allow all to have two. But after a brief rise the following year, the number of births has declined.
China 2020 census shows population growth slipped to lowest ever
May 11, 2021
Lawmakers seek condemnation of China’s abuse of ethnic Uighurs
February 11, 2021
Those aged 65 or older account for record 28.7% of the population
September 21, 2020EXPLAINER--What to watch at the fifth plenum of China’s Communist Party
October 27, 2020
Chinese lawmakers set to tighten control on Hong Kong
March 11, 2021
Fertility rate drops to 1.36 in 2019, down from 1.42 in 2018
June 6, 2020
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
