China Ends Its One Child Policy After More Than 30 Years

According to a statement by the Communist Party, China has decided to lift its one-child policy.

The rule has been amended to now allow two children per household.

The one-child policy was put in place in 1979 to keep the country's population under control, which in 2013 was a whopping 1.4 billion, making China the most populous nation in the world.

The Chinese government are hoping this two-child policy will help spur the economy and balance out gender. 

Because families could only have one child, many favored boys to continue the family lineage. This resulted in a huge gender imbalance and higher rates of abortion and infanticide of unwanted baby girls. According to Reuters, the global boy-to-girl ratio is 103 to 107, but in China, for every 100 girls there are 188 boys. 

Also, boys are frequently kidnapped and sold to families who want a male child. Per Quartz, the one-child policy may have had a role in the abduction of more than 200,000 Chinese babies each year.

A similar reform happened in 2013, in which an only-child parent could apply to have a second child, but only 6.7 percent of those eligible applied. Reuters cites financial issues as a factor.

The news organization found a tweet from a Chinese social media website that expressed frustration with the policy.

"I can't even afford to raise one, let alone two," it read.

Still, the new policy granting all families the option to expand their families is definitely a step in the right direction and one that could save a lot of lives.

Wang Feng, a leading expert on demographic and social change in China, told Reuters that the change, though long overdue, won't help the generational imbalance, but at least it will take a little of the stress out of having children.

"It won't have any impact on the issue of the aging society," said Wang, "but it will change the character of many young families."

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