The Politburo of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting on May 31 to propose further optimization of fertility policies and the implementation of the policy that a couple can have three children and supporting measures. On August 20, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress voted to pass the decision on amending the Population and Family Planning Law, and the "three-child" birth policy was officially incorporated into law. Why should the state implement the "three-child" policy at this time? What far-reaching impact will the "three-child" policy have on social development?
At the Taiyuan Maternal and Child Health Hospital, 31-year-old Dai Yunxia is undergoing a maternity examination, and she is pregnant with her third child in her belly. Xiao Dai is an only child, combined with her own growth experience, she hopes that her children can grow up together in the company of brothers and sisters.
Citizen Dai Yunxia: I was an only child myself, and in my childhood, I hoped that I would have an older brother and younger sibling to accompany me, but at that time, the national policy did not catch up, and the whole childhood felt relatively lonely. Now the country opens up three children, and then there are conditions, I hope to provide a more lively environment for my babies, I hope that my babies grow up with multiple people, and then take care of each other, care for each other, may also be a kind of wealth for them.
In fact, from the family structure of Xiao Dai, we can see that China's fertility policy has generally gone through several stages, the one-child policy implemented in the 1980s, in 2013, "single" couples can have two children, that is, one of the couples is an only child, you can have two children. In 2016, a couple can have two babies. There is no longer a requirement for couples to be only children. On May 31, 2021, the "three-child" policy was announced, a couple can have a baby, and China's population policy is constantly adjusting and optimizing.
Zhao Chunyu, professor of economics at the Party School of the Provincial Party Committee: After the founding of the People's Republic of China, we entered a peak period of fertility, and after the 50s, 60s, and 70s, we gave birth to a large number of children, but our social and economic development productivity could not keep up, so we could not solve the employment problem well, so a large number of people became surplus labor after birth. The surplus labor force did not participate in production, which became a huge burden on society, so we introduced a family planning policy at that time, which was a policy introduced at a specific period and for a specific stage, then we solved the problems at that time.
Today, China has developed into the world's second largest economy, with the acceleration of The process of industrialization and urbanization in China, the continuous improvement of education level, the gradual improvement of the social security system, the concept of fertility of the masses has also undergone obvious changes, less birth eugenics has become the mainstream, in recent years, China's total population growth momentum has weakened significantly, the birth population continues to decline, and the degree of aging continues to deepen.
Zhao Chunyu, professor of economics at the Party School of the Provincial Party Committee: After the end of the seventh census this year, the proportion of our population of more than 65 years old has accounted for 13.5%, and more than 7% of the international standard has entered the aging society, which means that we have begun to enter the aging society, and by 2030, our proportion will double, that will enter an era of severe aging, which means that the young labor force that will enter this society in the future will be more in short supply, so we have now let go of the second child. In the five years after this four years, we have let go of the three-child and begun to encourage fertility, which is closely related to the reality of our current economic and social development, so this year our country has begun to fully liberalize the three-child policy. (Reporters Wang Shuye and Zheng Liang)
Source: Taiyuan Radio and Television News Channel