The government in China plans to end its one-child policy and let families have two children.
The plan was announced on Thursday after high-level political meetings in Beijing. A Chinese Communist Party statement gave a number of reasons for the change in policy. The statement said the change is meant to balance development, stop a falling birth rat (出生率) and strengthen the country's labor force (劳动力).
China, with the largest population in the world, started the one-child policy in 1980. But the government allow only a small number of couples to have two children. For example, some families in the countryside could have two children, if the first-born child is a girl.
In 2013, the Chinese government gave other couples a chance to have two children if one of was an only child.
Jiang Quanbao, a teacher and population expert, explained how Chinese families react to the newest policy. "Too many young people in the cities are no longer interested in having a second child," he said. "People in the countryside are more interested. But some of them are already allowed to have two children."
At the end of 2014, China had a population of 1.37 billion people. A total of 800 million of them have jobs. But the labor market population will drop in 35 years. That is to say, the country will be in great need of labor by the year 2050. With the two-child policy, an increase in births can solve this problem.
Boys and girls, what do you think of the two-child policy? Do you want to have a new- born brother or a sister?
