China approves law to allow couples to have three children amid fears over decline in population growth

The revision came as part of several laws passed on Friday at a meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, amid fears over a decline in population growth.

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China has formally revised its laws to allow couples to have up to three children in a bid to boost the country’s birth rate.

The revision came as part of several laws passed on Friday at a meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, amid concerns over a sustained decline in population growth.

Acknowledging the rising costs of raising a child, the amended law also promises to offer "supportive measures” which aim to “reduce the burden” on families, according to Xinhua news agency. This includes encouraging local governments to offer parental leave and scrapping the “social maintenance fee” paid by couples who have more than two children.

The Chinese government abandoned its one-child policy in 2016 and couples were permitted to have two children, though the change failed to lead to the increase in births that officials had anticipated. Data released in May showed the population of mainland China increased 5.38 per cent to 1.41 billion - the lowest rise since census-taking began in 1953.

The country's fertility rate of 1.3 children per woman for 2020 alone puts it on a par with other ageing societies such as Japan and Italy.

The figures fell short of the government's target of boosting the population to 1.42 billion by 2020. "From the trend of population development in recent years, the population growth will continue to slow in the future," said Ning Jizhe, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, said following the release of the census results.

"China's population will reach a peak in the future, but the specific time is still uncertain. It is estimated that China's total population will remain at more than 1.4 billion in the near future."

Experts have warned that the three-child policy will not fix the crisis. Speaking to The Independent in May, Steve Tsang, director of SOAS’s China Institute, said the main reason why the reproduction rate continued in a downward trend had more to do with rising childcare costs.

Mr Tsang stressed that changing the number of children couples are permitted to have would “only affect those who can afford to have more children” and that a three-child policy would only have a "marginal effect". He added: "The real significance of the change is that it reflects a belated recognition by the Chinese government that China faces a demographic deficit, one that its previous policy entrenched."

Hao Zhou, a senior economist at Commerzbank, noted that the shift to the two-child policy had previously failed to significantly impact the birth rate in China.

"Who wants to have three kids? Young people could have two kids at most. The fundamental issue is living costs are too high and life pressures are too huge,” he told Reuters news agency.

A study published earlier this year by academics from Zhejiang University and Beijing Normal University found the two-child policy had only benefited wealthier couples who already had a child and were “less sensitive to child-rearing costs”.

By contrast, it had driven up the costs of childcare and education for first-time parents, the study claimed.