2017 Headline: China Announces Three Child Policy to Boost GDP

Caixin: One-Child Policy Said to Change Because Earlier Easing Failed

China's leaders decided to change the one-child policy so that couples could have a second baby because they saw that an easing of the rules in 2013 had little effect, a family planning official says.

The decision to drop the one-child rule was made at the end of a four-day meeting of the party's 18th Central Committee on October 29.

...The commission said that 1.39 million eligible couples had obtained permits to have a second child as of the end of May, fewer than the 2 million it had estimated. Only 55 percent of qualified couples have applied for a permit in seven provinces, official data show.

...Liang said that research done from 1980 to 2011 found that the average number of children that couples wanted was between 1.6 to 1.8, lower than the 2.2 needed to keep the population from shrinking.