[Hurriyet Daily News] China is considering further changes to its family planning laws, Premier Li Keqiang said on March 15, after a relaxation in the "one child policy" failed to see significantly more babies being born.The ruling Communist Party imposed strict rules in the late 1970s to limit population growth, with most urban couples restricted to a single offspring.
Hard to be a mighty world power when your population's dropping like a rock. Even changing the law isn't going to result in a great many more Heathen Chinee. They have birth control, too, and birth control countries are one or two child countries.
The often brutally enforced policy has been hugely controversial, but officials say it has been a key factor in China's rising prosperity. Now, though, it is leading to demographic problems including a rapidly ageing population and a shrinking labor force.
A relaxation in the regulations in late 2013, allowing couples to have two offspring if at least one parent was an only child, failed to see a marked increase in births.