‘Two-child policy’ a must for China, says family planning official

The mainland should further relax its one-child policy and all couples should have two babies if the nation is to solve problems including its ageing population, according to a provincial family planning official.

More births would also help solve the country's gender imbalance caused by some couples from rural areas ensuring their only child is a boy, according to Mei Zhiqiang, the deputy director of the Family Planning Commission in northern Shanxi province.

"We should make sure our policy and system allows our children to give birth to two children … and they must have two children," Mei was quoted as saying.

The government announced it was relaxing the one-child policy in 2013 to allow couples to have more than one baby if one parent was an only child.

The government said last month that about one million couples had applied to have a second child since the reforms were introduced.