China will be changing an important law that is associated with the world’s most populated country. The government will allow millions of parents to have a second child if they want to. In the first extensive set of reforms under President Xi Jinping, the ruling Communist party said, “We will begin to allow couples to have two children if one of them is an only child. We will gradually change and perfect our family planning policy and boost the population to grow steadily in the long term.” The party has also pledged again to close down the many labor camps that are all across the country, in order to better the rights of farmers and to take 30 percent of the profits of state-run companies and use them for public spending.

Liang Zhongtang, professor at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and a member of the National Family Planning Commission said that, “This is only a small step forward. The central government should not be tinkering around like this, they need to decide whether or not to stop the policy completely.” The Chinese government has claimed that the one-child policy has reduced the country’s population by 400 million, which most experts reject, as they say that the birth rate has decreased in countries like Japan and South Korea without any government intervention.

READ MORE: China's Changing Perception Of Singles

The one-child policy applies to around a third of China’s population, with couples living in rural areas being allowed to have a second child if their first is a girl. Ethnic minorities are also exempt from this policy. After three decades of birth restrictions, China has an ageing population. The one-child policy has also been criticized for encouraging the government to perform forced sterilizations and abortions to remain within their birth quotas.

An expert in demographics has estimated the change in policy would allow approximately ten million more couples to have a second child. Professor Liang has also added that, “I do not think there will be a huge spike in the birth rate. The number of women between 20 and 40 years old who can still give birth is in the tens of millions. And we are not sure how many of them are willing. Even if they are eligible, they have to choose to have another child.”

 

Reach Executive Producer Arash Zandi here. Follow him on Twitter here.