China’s one-child policy coming to an end

The move comes after years of public outcry against the one-child policy, which was enacted nationwide in 1979 to curb China’s burgeoning population.

China has unwound its one-child policy, for decades a symbol of invasive and coercive government planning, but the shift has been met with a disinterested shrug from many younger couples.

Wang continued, “While we celebrate the end of the one-child policy, we have to recognize that to allow a couple to have two children is far from enough”.

The plan to abandon the one-child policy came after a long meeting between members of China’s ruling Communist Party.

Many couples who were allowed to have another child under the 2013 rules decided not to, especially in the cities, citing the cost of bringing up children in an increasingly expensive country. That shift will require new social policies and will likely contribute to a decline in productivity and China’s growth rate .

Hu Xingdou, Professor of economics at Beijing’s Institute of Technology also believes now is the right time to abolish the one child policy, but he says it will not lead to a major population increase.

An estimated 400 million births were prevented by reducing the number of children.

“…For most ordinary families, the expense of raising a second child is overwhelming”.

The Communist leaders introduced the one-child policy as a preventive measure against population explosion.

Reuters quoted China’s state media saying that in January of this year, only about 6.7 percent of the 30,000 eligible families in Beijing applied to have a second child. Though the birth rate may inch up as a result, it won’t have much impact on China’s ageing population and shrinking workforce. “They include “orphaned” parents, who feel abandoned by the state after losing their only offspring, and “illegal” children, born into a life of legal limbo…”

China’s dramatic drop in fertility in the ’70s and ’80s created a demographic time bomb that will leave the country with a smaller work force and more older citizens to care for in the coming decades.

“China should have allowed second children 20 years ago”, said a 47-year-old doctor in Shanghai who would only give her surname, Cui.

“History will look back to see the one-child policy as one of the most glaring policy mistakes that China has made in its modern history”. It also is a very family centered society, so there are just as many families that will opt to have two children. Many families now can’t even afford one kid.