China Promotes Two-Child Policy

For the first time in decades, Chinese officials are actively encouraging married couples to start making babies. Under the current “one-child” policy, instated in 1979 to curve China’s booming population, urban parents who are both only children are allowed to have two offspring, and rural couples are allowed a second child if the first is a girl. Officials in Shanghai are now encouraging the 7,300 eligible couples to have both children to help relieve the pressure on Shanghai’s ageing population. By 2050, China is projected to have just 1.6 working-age adults for every person aged 60 and over, a shortfall made worse by China’s under-funded state pension system. Over 20 percent of Shanghai inhabitants are over 60 years old.