China announces three-child policy, in major policy shift

It is not known when the change takes effect.

China announced on Monday that each couple would be permitted to have up to three children, a major policy shift from the existing limit of two children after recent data showed in the world's most populous country. The change was approved during a politburo meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping, the official news agency Xinhua reported. In 2016, China scrapped its decades-old one-child policy — initially imposed to halt a population explosion — with a two-child limit, which failed to result in a sustained surge in births as the high cost of raising children in Chinese cities deterred many couples from starting families.