Yahoo – AFP,
15 March 2015
China is considering further changes to its family planning laws, Premier Li Keqiang said Sunday, after a relaxation in the "one child policy" failed to see significantly more babies being born.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) and Premier Li Keqiang attend the 12th National
People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on March 15, 2015
(AFP Photo/Wang Zhao)
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China is considering further changes to its family planning laws, Premier Li Keqiang said Sunday, after a relaxation in the "one child policy" failed to see significantly more babies being born.
The ruling
Communist Party imposed strict rules in the late 1970s to limit population
growth, with most urban couples restricted to a single offspring.
The often
brutally enforced policy has been hugely controversial, but officials say it
has been a key factor in China's rising prosperity. Now, though, it is leading
to demographic problems including a rapidly ageing population and a shrinking
labour force.
A
relaxation in the regulations in late 2013, allowing couples to have two
offspring if at least one parent was an only child, failed to see a marked
increase in births.
Li told
reporters that Beijing would assess the reform along with "China's
economic and social development situation" before any possible change in
regulations.
"Both
the pros and cons will be weighed," he said, adding that
"improvements, adjustments" would only be made in accordance with
legal procedures.
Li's comments
were measured but were in marked contrast to past official declarations that
family planning is a "fundamental national strategy" that cannot be
"shaken".
The topic
was raised at his once-a-year meeting with journalists at Beijing's Great Hall
of the People -- where questions are generally submitted in advance -- by state
broadcaster CCTV and seized on by the official news agency Xinhua.
Among its
consequences, the one child policy has also created a severe gender imbalance
due to a traditional preference for sons.
Nearly 116
boys were born for every 100 girls in China in 2014, while the sex ratio in the
total population was 105 men to 100 women.
Senior
official Liu Binjie said on Tuesday that China was reviewing the 2013 change
after revelations only 470,000 babies were born as a result -- representing one
tenth of families newly eligible to have a second child.
Experts
have proposed a further loosening of the laws -- and one local family planning
official even called last month for a mandatory two-child policy.
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