China’s top family
planning authority has stressed that its local affiliates must implement
the current one-child policy, until a new policy allowing all couples
to have two children goes into effect after being ratified by
legislators.The National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) made it known to newsmen on Monday in Beijing.
“Local authorities in each province should not carry out the two-child policy wilfully.”
NHFPC said, refuting claims by one local official that the new policy was effective as soon as it was announced.
Zhan Ming, deputy
director of the Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission in
central China’s Hunan, added that those pregnant with a second child
would not be punished.
NHFPC said, refuting claims by one local official that the new policy was effective as soon as it was announced.
Zhan Ming, deputy
director of the Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission in
central China’s Hunan, added that those pregnant with a second child
would not be punished.
The Communist Party
of China announced the abolishment of its decades-old one-child policy
at the close of a key meeting on Oct. 29, in an attempt to balance
population development and offset the burden of an aging population.
According to a
communiqué released after the plenum, a final plan for the policy change
will be ratified by the annual session of China’s top legislature in
March.
The NHFPC estimated
that about 90 million families may qualify for the new two-child policy,
which would help raise the population to an estimated 1.45 billion by
2030.
China, the world’s most populous nation, had 1.37 billion people at the end of 2014.
The one-child policy
was introduced in the late 1970s to rein in the surging population by
limiting most urban couples to one child, and most rural couples to two
children, if the first child born was a girl.
The policy was later relaxed to say that any parents could have a second child if the first were female children.
It was further
loosened in November 2013, with its current form stipulating that
couples are allowed to have two children if one of them is an only
child.
