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China ended its one child policy on Sunday with the signing into law of a measure allowing all married couples to have a second child.
The Chinese government signed into law on Sunday a measure that will eliminate the country’s one child policy. The new law will take effect Jan. 1, 2016.
In a congressional meeting Sunday, Chinese lawmakers approved the new birth policy. The previous one-child policy was adopted in 1979 to reduce social and environmental pressures from rapid population growth.
"The state advocates that one couple shall be allowed to have two children," reads the newly revised Law on Population and Family Planning.
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The end of the “one-child” policy is a strategy to curb the growing imbalance between China’s rapidly aging population and its declining work force. By 2040 more than one-fourth of China's population will be 65 or older.
Beijing relaxed the policy in 2013, allowing couples to qualify for a second birth if one of the parents was an only child.
The newly approved law is expected to add about 30 million people to the labor force by 2050, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.
The announcement takes place as the Chinese government is carrying out a series of far-reaching socio-economic reforms to be implemented by the year 2020.
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