China may further ease one-child policy to allow two children ‘by end of the year’
Newspaper suggests majority of couples could be allowed to have second child after government further relaxes restrictions on number of offspring
Mainland authorities could announce within months plans to further ease the decades-long one-child policy to let almost all couples have two children, local media reported on Wednesday.
An unnamed researcher said the National Health and Family Planning Commission could roll out a revised policy by the end of the year at the earliest to help the country cope with its greying population, China Business News reported.
The commission had said earlier this month that it was "wasting no time" working on the revised policy.
The newspaper also quoted a source as saying the commission's arm in Shanxi province had asked the central authorities to extend a pilot scheme to allow women in rural areas to have a second child under certain conditions.
But the branch was told that soon all parents would be allowed two children, so an extension was not necessary. An official with the provincial commission denied the exchange took place.
The government announced two years ago it would let parents who were both only children have a second baby.