China, considered to be the most densely populated country in the world, has seen a drop in its birth rate in the last year. As a result, the country is declaring that parents can have three children from now on, not two. The decision was made at a meeting of the Communist parties in China.

Lower fertility

The census result in China showed a sharp decline in fertility rate. Due to the lack of Covid-19, the birth rate has dropped to 12 million in 2020, compared to 14.65 million in 2019.

A total of 264 million people aged 60 and over last year also demonstrate a faster ageing of the country. Faced with this, the communist parties have decided to give couples the freedom to have 3 children in order to solve the problem

Reasons for China's declining birth rate include: the cost of inflation, delayed pregnancy among career-minded women, high housing costs and education.

A new policy

For about 30 years, China only allowed one child. But since 2016, they relaxed the law and allowed couples to have 2 children. But still, this could not increase the birth rate in the country. On the contrary, it has promoted the decline of reproduction every year.

Currently, the communist parties have decided at their meetings, chaired by President Xin Jinping, to permanently abolish the 2016 law and adopt a new policy of 3 children per couple. A strategy which, according to the decision-makers, could increase the number of births in China. The President of China, for his part, did not reject this new strategy.

Is it an effective solution?

Experts are not convinced of the new policy. "If the relaxation of the birth rate policy was effective, the two-child policy should have been effective too," said Hao Zhou, senior economist at Commerzbank.

For the human rights organization Amnesty International, the strategy is a violation of sexual and reproductive rights, similar to the previous measure.

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Photo Credit: Freepik

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