Tackling overpopulation: China vs. India [Gateway House]
On October 29th 2015, China loosened its “One Child Policy,” allowing all families to have up to two children. This follows an earlier relaxation in 2013, where China allowed those without siblings to themselves have up to two children.
Beijing cited “the challenge of an ageing population” as the reason for this relaxation. China faces a looming demographic crisis, as more and more of its population ages out of the workforce with fewer people to replace them. China’s fertility rate is currently 1.7 births per woman, compared to a replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman.
This is an excerpt from a blog post written for Gateway House, a foreign-policy think tank based in Mumbai, India, published on January 11th, 2016. The post can be accessed here.