Opinion | About time China grew out of the one-child policy

Mainland officials in charge of statistics are not known for flagging areas of concern when they meet the press at regular briefings and present the latest economic data. Instead, they always try to highlight positive numbers, while glossing over the disappointing figures.

So it came as a bit of a surprise when Ma Jiantang, the head of the National Bureau of Statistics, urged reporters to pay attention to figures showing that the total size of the working population, aged 15 to 59, fell last year by 3.45 million, to 937 million. He stressed that this was the first such decline in recent history.

After being pressed by reporters, he said he wasn't denying that he was concerned about the decline, and he carefully worded his reply by saying that, while the mainland should stick to its national family-planning policy, it should also consider "appropriate and scientific" changes.

Ma's carefully worded concerns, broadcast live on national television and online, will no doubt ignite a new round of debate over the mainland's highly controversial one-child policy.

The fact that Ma is a high-ranking official should further bolster the calls for change by opponents of the policy, by showing that support for change is also growing within the Communist Party leadership.

It is interesting to note that Ma voiced his concerns just two days after the National Population and Family Planning Commission held its annual conference, in which officials vowed to unswervingly uphold family planning as a long-term fundamental national policy. The statement released after the conference suggested that the central government doesn't have any immediate plans to relax the policy.