China’s Communist Party gives couples permission to have two children

China’s Xinhua News Agency announced earlier today that the Communist Party of China has decided to allow couples to have two children instead of one. Abandoning a policy that has been in place for decades, the party chose to do so in an effort “to balance population development” and to address the issue of an enormous surge in the elderly population in coming years.

Li Bin, head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said after the release of Thursday’s communique that the two-child policy will optimize the demographic structure, increase labor supply, ease pressure from the ageing population, and help improve the health of the economy.

Li added that the commission will increase services in maternal and child health as well as build more kindergartens.

The one-child policy was first introduced in the 1970’s, when leaders decided to try and slow population growth by limiting urban couples to one child, and rural couples to two only when the firstborn was a girl.

According to Fox News, the move has been in the making for quite some time, with China on the verge of a “labor crisis.”

China’s working-age population is drastically shrinking, and the United Nations projects that China will lose 67 million workers from 2010 to 2030. Meanwhile, China’s elderly population is expected to rise from 110 million in 2010 to 210 million in 2030. By 2050, the seniors will account for a quarter of the population.

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