Extensive Reading 中国有望放开二胎政策 China to loosen family planning policy

中国二胎政策有望放开

据《京华时报》报道，中国政府有望在“十二五规划”（2011-2015）年末放松计划生育政策，允许二胎，此举旨在减轻工龄人口缺乏以及老年人口 的赡养问题。全国政协委员、人口资源环境委员会副主任王玉庆透露，中国计生部门目前正在考虑在全国城市地区放开二胎政策。目前在农村和少数民族地区，如果 夫妇的第一个孩子是女孩，政策允许生第二胎。

王庆玉认为，政策放开不会导致人口暴涨。他说，城市化进程已经改变了人们的生育观念。 在京沪这样的大城市，抚养孩子的成本高昂，也促使人口出生率持续下降，所以出生率总体会保持稳定。中国现行的计划生育政策始于上世纪70年代初，目的在于 抑制当时人口过快增长的势头。按现行规定，只有双方均为独生子女的夫妇才能生养二胎。

China to loosen family planning policy

The Chinese government is likely to loosen its family planning policies at the end of the 12fth Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) to address the country's working-age population shortage and an increasing burden to support the elderly, the Beijing Times reported. China's population authority is considering the possibility of allowing all urban couples to have a second child, said Wang Yuqing, Deputy Director of the Population, Resources and Environment Committee under China's top advisory body. Currently, couples residing in rural areas and members of minority ethnic groups are allowed to have a second child when their first-born is a girl.

Yu said he believed loosening the policy would not profoundly affect the population, adding that urbanization has transformed people's ideas on family planning. In major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, the birth rate continues to drop due to the high cost of raising a child. The current family planning policy, which was initiated in the early 1970s to control China's then-rapidly growing population, stipulates that only "only-child" couples in urban areas can have two children.