China strictly enforced its one-child policy over three decades ago in the hopes of solving its population crisis. But the country announced Thursday that it is scrapping this law in order to allow all Chinese couples to have two children.
According to Xinhua News Agency, the Communist Party of China (CPC) decided to do away with the one-child policy to address China's ageing population. According to BBC, over 30 percent of China's 1.36 billion population is composed of 50-year-old and above.
Below are five important things to know about China's one-child policy and its subsequent change:
1) Since enforcing the policy during the 1980s, at least 400 million births were prevented, as reported by BBC. Yet, the policy's success unfortunately gave rise to other problems like abortion and sterility. In the past,families were punished or fined for violating the law, thus citizens resorted to other means just to escape the consequences.
2) Eventually, the policy was amended to allow couples to have two children provided that the parents are themselves the only child in their own families. This happened in late 2013, according to The Guardian.
3) But in doing so, Chinese families, who traditionally prefer male heirs, caused a surplus in the male population, according to CNN. In some provinces, particularly in the rural areas, families with daughters as first-born were also allowed to bear another child to ensure that they have sons who can head future generations.
4) It's still unclear how this change will impact the country because despite the relaxation of the policy a few years ago, China's National Health only saw a slow growth in the population, according to the Wall Street Journal. The primary reason for this is that more families are considering the cost of having more than one child, and not everyone can afford to have many children.
5) Despite Thursday's change, many are still wary this will bring positive results. Some Chinese are even saying that the move is too late. "It is unfair. We obeyed the policy and they didn't even mention us - the parents who have lost their only children," said 49-year-old Li Qin in another Guardian report. Human rights group Amnesty International warns in a statement that the change is still limiting when any state should not have any business about a family's choice for having children.
"History will look back to see the one-child policy as one of the most glaring policy mistakes that China has made in its modern history," said a Chinese professor and demographic expert in another CNN report.
