China allows couples to have three children in the face of a demographic crisis

China will allow couples to have three children, ignoring calls for the complete abolition of family policies in the face of the demographic crisis, after Beijing reported that the population has grown at a slower pace for decades.

Xinhua, China’s state media agency, said the Communist Party’s political leaders, made up of its 25 senior officials, had concluded a new “three-child policy” to “actively combat the aging population and maintain China’s natural advantage in human resources.” ”.

Experts, the public and even China’s central bank have called on the government to completely abolish birth limits census published this month according to the population, it rose by 5.34 billion 5.4 percent in 2010 (the lowest rate of census growth since the People’s Republic of China began collecting data in 1953) and births fell sharply.

But Beijing does not want to break with the population control devices of a decade of childhood, as it enacted a very unpopular anti-child policy that often used savage means, including forced abortions and sterilizations.

Over the past five years, China’s fertility rate has dropped significantly to 1.3 births per woman, one of the lowest in the world. The two-child policy introduced in 2015 had little effect on the increase in births.

Demographers say that rising incomes, urbanization and the costs of raising children have led to a decline in fertility rates that will be very difficult.

The announcement of the three-child policy was a quick reaction on social media, despite being censored by government critics.

“First of all, I recommend that you solve the basic problems of child support plus… Unfair treatment of women in the workplace before you ask them to have children!”

“Many of us were the only children of our generation. Then [the government] he fined us. Now they want to raise four old parents and three children. . . only in your dreams, ”read another reply.