China said it would abandon its controversial “one-child policy” on Thursday and allow all couples to have two children, pulling back from the biggest experiment in modern population control in a sign of growing economic pressures from a rapidly aging population. 5 Facts about China abandons one-child policy,No allows two kids for all couples
The government credits it with preventing 400m births, but the human cost has been immense, with forced sterilisations and abortions, infanticide, and a dramatic gender imbalance that means millions of men will never find female partners.
China may bring in 'two-child policy' to tackle demographic timebomb
In 2012 – in one of the most shocking recent cases of human rights abuses related to the policy – a 23-year-old woman from Shaanxi province in north-west China was abducted by family planning officials and forced to have an abortion seven months into the pregnancy.
Opponents say the policy has also created a demographic “timebomb”, with China’s 1.3 billion-strong population ageing rapidly, and the country’s labour pool shrinking. The UN estimates that by 2050 China will have about 440 million people over 60. The working-age population – those between 15 and 59 – fell by 3.71 million last year, a trend that is expected to continue.
News that the one-child policy has been abandoned comes three months after one Chinese newspaper predicted the policy would be phased out by the end of this year. At the time those reports were denied by the Chinese government.
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