China allows couples to have third child

As China faces a looming demographic crisis, the Chinese Communist Party will ease birth limits to allow all couples to have three children rather than two, according to government mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency. China’s one-child policy, which began in 1980, eased in 2015 to two children per couple. Still, the number of births has dropped.

What are the effects of China’s family planning? A census released in May revealed China’s population is growing at its slowest pace in decades. Only 12 million babies were born in China last year, the lowest number since 1961. This means the workforce needed to power China’s economic rise is shrinking while the population gets older, placing more pressure on the country’s healthcare and pension systems. China’s one-child policy led to 400 million abortions, according to health commission statistics, as well as a gender imbalance as boys are preferred over girls.

Dig Deeper: Read June Cheng's report from 2018 on the nascent pro-life movement in China.