China to Loosen Family Planning Policy

The Chinese government will loosen its family planning policy at the end of the next five-year plan period in an effort to ease the pressures of the working-age population shortage and aging population increase, The Beijing Time reports.

The population authority is mulling the possibility of allowing all urban couples to have a second child, said Wang Yuqing, deputy director of the Population, Resources and Environment Committee under China's top advisory body. He believes that the new policy will not cause a spurt in population because of the current low birth rate in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. He added that the high cost of raising a child also would help keep the birth rate at a stable level.

The current family planning policy was initiated to control China's rapidly growing population in the early 1970s. It stipulates that only "only-child" couples in urban areas can have two children.

China had 1.341 billion people at the end of 2010, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Ji Baocheng, a deputy to the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) and president of Renmin University of China, said problems including a labor force shortage, rising male-to-female ratio and large aging population would have a direct negative impact on Chinese families within several dozen years.

"The labor force population between the ages of 28 and 40 will be halved in 10 years, while the aged group above the age of 60 will take a 30-percent proportion in the years to come," Ji said, urging the government to adjust the current family planning policy.