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China, in Major Policy Shift, Announces Families Can Have Three Children

Reuters

   BEIJING - China announced on Monday thatmarried couples may have up to
   three children, a major policyshift from the existing limit of two
   after recent data showed adramatic decline in births in the world's
   most populous country.

   The change was approved during a politburo meeting chairedby President
   Xi Jinping, the official news agency Xinhuareported.

   In 2016, China scrapped its decades-old one-child policy -initially
   imposed to halt a population explosion - with atwo-child limit, which
   failed to result in a sustained surge inbirths as the high cost of
   raising children in Chinese citiesdeterred many couples from starting
   families.

   "To furtheroptimizethe birth policy, (China) willimplement 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, whichwill be
   conducive to improving our country's populationstructure, fulfilling
   the country's strategy of actively copingwith an aging population and
   maintaining the advantage,endowment of human resources", Xinhua said.

   It did not specify the support measures.

   The announcement drew a chilly response on Chinese socialmedia, where
   many people said they could not afford to have evenone or two children.

   "I am willing to have three children if you give me 5million yuan
   ($785,650)," one user posted on WeiboEarly this month, China's
   once-in-a-decade census showedthat the population grew at its slowest
   rate during the lastdecade since the 1950s, to 1.41 billion.

   Data also showed a fertility rate of just 1.3 children perwoman for
   2020 alone, on a par with ageing societies like Japanand Italy.

   Also on Monday, China's politburo said it would phase-indelays in the
   country's retirementages butdid not provide anydetails.

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