China will keep 1-child policy

BEIJING, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- China's 30-year-old policy of one child per couple will continue as it tries to keep its population of 1.3 billion in check, an official said.

The 1-child policy has prevented 400 million births in the world's most populous country, the Chinese newspaper Global Times reported.

"Historical change doesn't come easily, and I, on behalf of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, extend profound gratitude to all, the people in particular, for their support of the national course," said Li Bin, head of the commission.

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang made the 1-child announcement last week. China's population would be about 1.7 billion if birthrates continued at 1970s levels, prior to the policy's enactment, the official Xinhua news said.

Holding the line on population expansion helps in several ways, but some officials believe the 1-child policy could result in an aging society, and could slow the country's economic growth.

"Population is a kind of capital," said Wu Yaowu, a researcher in population economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "With an insufficient workforce, economic growth will slow down."

But, a society aging sooner than expected, and an imbalance in gender population are two drawbacks to the 1-child policy, said Yao Yuan, a professor and specialist in demographics at Renmin University told the Global Times.

The Web site 2point6billion.com said the number of impoverished people in China has decreased from 250 million to 40 million since the Communist Party initiated the 1-child policy.