Today in history: China announces the end to one-child policy

Today in history, the ruling Chinese Communist Party announced the end to the one-child population control policy after 35 years.

Before the end of the policy, most parents were restricted to having one child, although the political and financial elite who were able to afford the financial penalties often had more than one child.

The one-child policy was introduced in 1979 by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to curb China’s rapidly growing population. When introduced, the policy mandated that Han Chinese, the ethnic majority, could only have one child.

In the early 1980s China relaxed the policy to allow couples to have a second child if each parent are both only children. Exceptions also include couples that live in rural China and ethnic minorities with a small population.

The increase of older citizens and decrease of the labour force was what propagated the end of the one-child policy.  China’s one-child policy is estimated to have prevented up to 400 million births since it was instituted 35 years ago.