China Moves to Three-Child Policy to Boost Falling Birthrate
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May.31 -- China will allow all couples to have a third child. The government's surprise move is aimed at slowing the nation’s declining birthrate amid a rapidly aging population. Tom Mackenzie reports on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Australia."
China announced a major change to its family planning policies. What do we know about that?
So at a politburo meeting headed by Xi Jinping, China announced it was a surprise move that families here will now be able to have three children. We don't have the time frame. We don't know exactly when this will be enacted, but it does follow decades of very gradual changes to the family planning policies in China. In 2016 they allowed families to increase the number of children, they could have from one to two, and you saw in 2016 a short term blip in terms of upward moves in terms of the numbers of births. The concern is that this is too little too late. Policiy makers are clearly very anxious about a possible declining population. You could see the population of China falling before 2025 according to some economists. You had 12 million new births last year. That was the lowest number since 1961, but others are saying look you need much more than just this announcement. You need to follow through with policy changes around maternity leave, around pushing down the cost of education and housing. So most think this will not be enough. There have to be other policies enacted if China is going to miss this major demographic challenge.