China has passed a law allowing couples to have three children – SME.sk

BEIJING. The National People’s Congress, China’s highest legislature, has officially allowed the couple there to have three descendants instead of the previous two.

Beijing announced this policy in May, and formally approved this fundamental change on Friday.

People of working age are declining too fast

According to the Xinhua News Agency, lawmakers have also passed several resolutions aimed at increasing the birth rate and “reducing the burden” of raising a child.

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These include the abolition of the “social maintenance fee”, a financial penalty that couples pay for exceeding a set limit on the number of children. Legislative innovations also encourage regional governments to draw on parental responsibility holidays, increasing women’s employment rights and improving childcare.

The so-called three-child policy is a response to the growing average age of the Chinese population.

The results of a recent census have shown that China’s working-age population has shrunk over the past decade, while the number of people over the age of 65 has increased, increasing the strain on the country’s society and economy.

The ruling party has limited the number of descendants since 1980 to slow population growth, but now fears that the number of people of working age is declining too fast.

They plan to raise the retirement age

According to party leaders, further optimization of fertility, by allowing one couple to have three children, in conjunction with support measures, should help improve the structure of the Chinese population.

Leaders also plan to raise the retirement age and improve the pension and health care system.

Restrictions restricting most couples to one child were released by the country in 2015 and allowed a maximum of two children. After a short increase in birth rates the following year, however, the number of births decreased. Couples are discouraged by the costs of raising children, problems with work and also the need to take care of their own parents.

Experts predicted that China’s 1.4 billion population will peak in this decade and then begin to decline. However, the results of the census have shown that this is happening faster than expected, which puts pressure on the underfunded pension and health care system.

The share of people aged 15-59 in the total population fell to 63.3% last year from 70.1% a decade ago, while the group of people aged 65 and over rose from 8.9% to 13.5%.