In a major policy shift, the Chinese government on Monday relaxed the restrictions imposed on the birth of children and announced that married couples may have up to three children. The change was approved during a politburo meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping, the official news agency Xinhua reported.
The decision comes after recent data showed a dramatic decline in births in the world`s most populous country. In 2019, the delivery rate in China fell to the lowest level in nearly six decades.
"To further optimise the birth policy, (China) will implement a one-married-couple-can-have-three-children policy," Xinhua said in a report on the meeting.
The policy change will come 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 and maintaining the advantage, endowment of human resources", Xinhua said.
It did not specify the support measures.
China introduced a one-child policy in the late 1970s to slow down the rapidly increasing population rate. After this, in 2016, it was allowed to produce two children in the country for fear of increasing the population of the elderly and decreasing workforce. However, it failed to result in a sustained surge in births as the high cost of raising children in Chinese cities deterred many couples from starting families.
Chinese state media indicated a few weeks ago that China, the most populous country in the world, is preparing to end its decades-old policy of determining the number of children of couples. At the same time, 3 offices that implement the policies of family planning at the grassroots level have now been removed from the new structure of the National Health Commission of China. Instead, a new office has been created for population monitoring and family development. This will work to improve the birth policy.