Strategy needed to balance population structure

The communiqu�� issued after the recently concluded Fifth Plenum of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee said all couples will be allowed to have two children, ending the one-child policy for the overwhelming majority of the population.

The 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) period was the first to see a real change in the strict family planning policy that was implemented in the late 1970s to check the booming population. In 2013, the government announced that couples could have a second child if either husband or wife was the only child of his/her parents.

But most eligible couples seemed disinterested in having a second child. This shows there is no fear of a rebound in the fertility rate; instead, China should worry about its low fertility rate and shrinking population.