Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

China allows couples to have 3 kids to stave off demographic crisis

China allows couples to have 3 kids to stave off demographic crisis

CHINA has relaxed its family planning policy to allow couples to have three children after a census showed its population is rapidly ageing, state media reported on Monday (31), further unwinding four decades of controls in the world's most populous nation which have strangled the birth rate.

For almost 40 years, China enforced a controversial "one-child policy" - one of the strictest family planning regulations worldwide - which was relaxed in 2016 to a "two-child policy" due to widespread concerns over an ageing workforce and economic stagnation.


Despite government efforts to encourage couples to have children, 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. That threatens a demographic crisis that has alarmed the ruling Communist Party headed by president Xi Jinping, as it could result in a shortage of young workers to drive an economy experts say will by 2050 have to support hundreds of millions of elderly people.

"To actively respond to the ageing of the population ... a couple can have three children," Xinhua said, citing a Monday (31) meeting of China's elite politburo leadership committee hosted by Xi.

China's fertility rate stands at 1.3 - below the level needed to maintain a stable population, the National Bureau of Statistics revealed.

The once-in-a-decade 2020 census results published last month also showed that China's population grew at its slowest rate since the 1960s, reaching 1.41 billion.

It comes alongside a sharp drop in the number of working-age people, once again raising fears of a looming demographic crisis.

China's gender balance has also been skewed by decades of the one-child policy, and a traditional social preference for boys which prompted a generation of sex-selective abortions and abandoned baby girls.

Although the policy has been relaxed in the past few years, this has not prompted a baby boom as policymakers had hoped.

Falling marriage rates in recent years have played out in slower birth rates, as have rising costs of living and increasingly empowered and educated women delaying or avoiding childbirth.

The demographic shift in China has significant economic and political implications for the world's second biggest economy.

A third of the Chinese is forecast to be elderly by 2050, heaping huge pressure on the state to provide pensions and healthcare.

More For You

uk-snow-getty

People drive their cars past a landscape covered in snow and along the Snake pass road, in the Peak district, northern England. (Photo: Getty Images)

UK records coldest January night in 15 years at -17.3 degrees Celsius

THE UK recorded its coldest January night in 15 years as temperatures dropped to -17.3 degrees Celsius in Altnaharra, Sutherland, by 9 pm on Friday.

This is the lowest January temperature since 2010, when Altnaharra hit -22.3 degrees Celsius on 8 January, The Guardian reported.

Keep ReadingShow less
Chandra Arya

Arya, who represents Nepean in Ottawa and was born in India's Karnataka, made the announcement on X. (Photo: X/@AryaCanada)

Liberal MP Chandra Arya declares bid for prime minister of Canada

CANADA’s Asian MP Chandra Arya has announced his candidacy for the prime ministership, just hours before the Liberal Party confirmed that its next leader will be selected on 9 March.

Arya’s announcement comes days after prime minister Justin Trudeau declared his decision to step down while continuing in office until a new leader is chosen.

Keep ReadingShow less
Exclusive: 'Starmer must fill NHS staffing defecit'
Dr Chaand Nagpaul

Exclusive: 'Starmer must fill NHS staffing defecit'

LABOUR's latest announcement to cut NHS waiting lists, while welcome, does not go far enough, the former leader of the doctors’ union, Chaand Nagpaul has told Eastern Eye.

Prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, unveiled his plans on Monday (6). He pledged Labour would set up more NHS hubs in community locations in England, and the service would make greater use of the private sector to help meet the challenge.

Keep ReadingShow less
Exclusive: 'Stop spreading racial hatred'
Nazir Afzal

Exclusive: 'Stop spreading racial hatred'

POLITICIANS must dial down “dangerous and inflammatory” rhetoric and recognise the contributions of all communities in Britain, prominent south Asians have told Eastern Eye.

They are concerned that recent social media attacks on asylum seekers, immigrants, especially British Pakistanis, as well as ministers will lead to unnecessary deaths.

Keep ReadingShow less
Lisa-Nandy-Getty

The culture secretary retains powers to refer the case to the Competition and Markets Authority, which could trigger an investigation into press freedom concerns linked to Abu Dhabi’s involvement. (Photo: Getty Images)

Calls grow for Lisa Nandy to end Telegraph ownership stalemate

THE SALE of The Telegraph newspaper has drawn widespread political calls for culture secretary Lisa Nandy to intervene and end the prolonged uncertainty surrounding its ownership.

The newspaper has been in limbo for 20 months after an auction process initiated by RedBird IMI, an Abu Dhabi-backed investment fund, failed to secure a suitable buyer.

Keep ReadingShow less