China is looking set to abolish its policies around population control, anonymous insiders have told Bloomberg.
The birth control laws which currently limit families to two children each could be scrapped as soon as this year, as China's chief administrative authority reportedly initiated research into the ramifications of ending the policy.
The nearly four-decade-old Family Planning Policy has long been a target of international criticism.
One of the insiders who has spoken to the media said the removal of the law would allow Chinese families to have “independent fertility”. The Communist country's top authority is expected to make the decision by the end of 2018, Bloomberg reported.
A Chinese official from one Family Planning organisation told SBS Mandarin that families in the region had been taking advantage of the Two-Child Policy since it was introduced in 2016, but the third child was “illegal”.
China had a million more births in 2016 than in 2015, following the end of the one-child policy. Source: AFP
"[The government is] measuring and forecasting related issues," he told SBS Mandarin.
"We have to observe the influence of the Two-Child Policy and its effects on birth rate [before making a decision]”.
One-Child Policy
For nearly four decades China's major policy around birth control was known as the 'One-Child Policy'. After it was introduced in 1979, as well as restricting people to one child per family, “late marriage and late childbearing” were also encouraged, as was “better prenatal and postnatal care”.
While exception to the one-child rule was given to some families, including those in rural areas whose first child had been female, and ethnic minorities like Tibetan and Uygur, the law was strongly enforced. The Chinese government also provided financial incentives for families who followed the policy.
Although the policy achieved China's goal of reducing population growth, it had a deeply negative social impact, including gender imbalance and labour shortage.
Source: Getty Images
It’s also been extensively criticised by human rights groups for inciting forced abortion and child trafficking.
Two-Child Policy
On October 29, 2015, the Chinese Communist Party decided to abandon the One-Child Policy and roll out the so-called 'Two-Child Policy' that allows family to have two kids.
On December 2, the Communist Party’s decision was brought to China’s top legislative body, the People’s Congress, and approved on December 21. The law came into effect on January 1, 2016.
