Population policy will stay for now

The nation's top population official has ruled out any drastic change to the family planning policy, including the one-child rule, for at least the next decade.

Zhang Weiqing, minister of the State Population and Family Planning Commission, said a policy change, if needed, would come only after the end of a new birth peak that will last for the next 10 years.

"The current family planning policy, formed as a result of gradual changes in the past two decades, has proved compatible with national conditions," he said in an interview with China Daily.