China will allow three-child families after its birth rate drops sharply

China 

The authorities in China have announced that couples will be allowed to have up to three children raising the limit from two it follows census figures showing a steep decline in the birth rate five years ago the Chinese communist party had to abandon its one-child policy for the nation implemented in 1976 which aimed to limit population growth with more here's our china correspondent john Dodworth the announcement may have looked a little mundane but the news was momentous Chinese women can now have three children for decades china's one-child policy was brutally enforced with millions of involuntary sterilizations and abortions it was not only cruel it was a disaster China doesn't have enough young people to sustain its economy and the two-child policy brought in five years ago has made little difference I think the meet the concept of the one-child policy more Fong the author of a book about china's birth control policy says the latest change doesn't go far enough it should have been gone yesterday the fact that it's still there in some form is a testament I think to the failures of Beijing to fully acknowledge the mistakes you have a nation of really um aging lonely people who have been massively terrorized in a way by this very very traumatic and at the end of the day very unnecessary family punitive family planning policy china once estimated that its harsh controls had prevented 400 million births but this is a change being driven not by a belated recognition of women's rights over their own fertility but by economic need the trouble is few women want a second child let alone a third we can't afford it these women say the government's subsidies are not enough this straw poll by china's the official news agency says it all enthusiasm for a third child saw more than a thousand votes but those completely ruling it out 28 000 the survey was deleted before it got any worse and while the policies being relaxed across most of the country in Xinjiang, there's evidence the controls are getting tougher with a dramatic drop-off in weaker birth rates decline china insists that's entirely voluntary John Cudworth Top 10 writer news Taipei.