Policy support required to boost fertility rate

TO COPE WITH its fast-aging society, China changed its family planning policy in 2015 to allow all couples to have two children. But according to the National Bureau of Statistics, China saw 17.23 million newborns last year, 630,000 fewer than 2016. People's Daily Overseas Edition comments:

Children are pearls in the palms of every family. But now having children has become a matter of attracting the attention of the whole society.

The authorities should draw a lesson from the birth statistics that drives home the message that although the fertility rate can be limited by the law, it can't be increased by it. More than a change to the family planning policy is needed to encourage couples to have two kids.