BEIJING China, worried about an aging population, is
studying scrapping its controversial one-child policy but will not do away with
family-planning policies altogether, a senior official said on Thursday.
With the world's biggest population straining scarce
land, water and energy resources, China has enforced rules to restrict family
size since the 1970s. Rules vary but usually limit families to one child, or
two in the countryside.
We want incrementally to have this change,
Vice-Minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission Zhao
Baige told reporters in Beijing.
I cannot answer at what time or how, but this has become
a big issue among decision makers, Mr. Zhao added. The attitude is to do the
studies, to consider it responsibly and to set it up systematically.
The average number of children that would be born to a
woman over her lifetime has decreased to 1.8 in China today, from 5.8 in the
1970s, and below the replacement rate of 2.1.
China says its policies have prevented several hundred
million births and boosted prosperity, but experts have warned of a looming
social time-bomb from an aging population and widening gender disparity
stemming from a traditional preference for boys.
Still, the government has previously expressed concern
that too many people are flouting the rules.
State media said in December that China's population
would grow to 1.5 billion people by 2033, with birth rates set to soar over the
next five years.
Officials have also cautioned that population controls
are being unravelled by the increased mobility of China's 150 million-odd migrant
workers, who travel from poor rural areas to work in more affluent eastern
cities.
China has vowed to slap heavier fines on wealthy citizens who flout family planning laws in response to the emergence of an upper class willing to pay standard fines to have more children.