Viral Swing: China 'considering scrapping all limits' on number of children per family

China is considering scrapping the limits it places on how many children families can have, ending one of history's most intrusive and controversial social experiments, a report has claimed. China's cabinet, the State Council, has commissioned research to explore what effects such a move would have, and an announcement could be made later this year or in 2019, Bloomberg News said. In recent years, Beijing has been confronting the consequences of four decades of strict family planning controls - a dwindling workforce and a huge increase in elderly citizens. Authorities scrapped the infamous 'one child policy' in 2016, a move which Beijing hoped would kickstart a baby boom and ward off the looming demographic time-bomb. Communist Party chiefs launched a propaganda blitz urging prospective mothers to “seize the time and conceive”. But busy younger mothers in urban areas - where the new rules mainly applied - turned their backs on having a second child. Also, a two-child limit remained in place for many. The relaxation in family planning laws consequently failed to have a significant impact on falling birthrates, causing a major headache for leaders. Children of Yugur ethnic minority learn traditional dance in Zhangye, northwest China's Gansu Province Credit: Wang Jiang/Zuma Press / eyevine Figures showed only one million more babies were born in 2016 than 2015. Chinese experts expect the country’s working population — estimated by the government to be 998.3 million people by the end of 2016— to drop by around 40 million by 2030. By 2050, 30 per cent of Chinese will be age 60 or over, the United Nations estimates, versus 20 per cent worldwide and 10 per cent in China in the year 2000. China launched its one child policy in the late 1970s as Beijing sought to stem a rapidly growing population, and officials still claim it has been a major factor behind the country’s growing prosperity. But the draconian family planning laws - which are often enforced through intrusive forms of contraception and even forced abortions - have been widely condemned by human rights campaigners. The one-child policy also contributed to a sharp gender imbalance, with 32.66 million more males than females at the end of 2017. There were just over 17.5 million births in China in 2016, the first full year after the one child policy was scrapped, which represented an increase in the country's birth rate from 1.54 to 1.6 children per woman. China hopes to increase its birth rate to 1.8 by 2021, pushing the total figure each year to up to 21 million. However, many Chinese experts believe that even with no limits on the size of families, China will struggle to significantly boost the number of births. Observers point to a culture of having small families becoming the norm in the country. The phenomenon has become more entrenched with the latest generation of parents, who enjoy the extra freedom and disposable income associated with smaller family units. Li Jianmin, professor of population studies at Nankai University in the northern city of Tianjin, previously told The Telegraph that he expected China's birth rate would stabilise at around 1.6 to 1.7 percent - even without any restrictions on family sizes. "(That) means even less babies will be born in China than abroad,” he said. “It is all about Chinese women now having the same lifestyle as those in the West.”