China may scrap limits on family size by end of year
Country’s leaders said to be considering plan to end notorious curbs on how many children parents are allowed to have
China is considering a plan to scrap all limits on the number of children a family can have, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be a historic end to a policy that spurred countless human-rights abuses and left the world’s second-largest economy short of workers.
The State Council, China’s cabinet, has commissioned research on the repercussions of ending the country’s roughly four-decade-old policy and intends to enact the change nationwide, said the people, who asked not named while discussing government deliberations.
The leadership wants to reduce the pace of ageing in China’s population and remove a source of international criticism, one of the people said.
Proposals under discussion would replace the population-control policy with one called “independent fertility,” allowing people to decide how many children to have, the person said.
The decision could be made as soon as the fourth quarter, the second person said, adding that the announcement might also be pushed into 2019.