China lifts cap on births per family, announces families can have three children

Beijing had scrapped its decades-old one-child policy in 2016.

BEIJING: China said on Monday (May 31, 2021) that married couples may have up to three children, a major policy shift from the existing limit of two after recent data showed a dramatic decline in births in the world`s most populous country. Beijing scrapped its decades-old one-child policy in 2016, replacing it with a two-child limit that failed to result in a sustained surge in births given the high cost of raising children in Chinese cities - a challenge that remains. "To further optimise the birth policy, (China) will implement a one-married-couple-can-have-three-children policy," the official Xinhua news agency said in a report following a Politburo meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping.