The head of China's largest tourism agency has called for the regulations on birth control to be removed from the nation's Constitution, Caixin.com reports. Such a change could be made at the second plenary session of the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, which began on January 18 in Beijing.
Liang Jianzhang, who is the chairman of Chinese tourism giant Ctrip, says China's growing aging population, sluggish economy and difficulties taking care of the elderly will be exacerbated if the nation's low fertility rate is not reversed. Urbanization and modernization are said to have played a role in the depressed birth rate, alongside deep-rooted cultural factors stemming from the zealous enforcement of the family planning policy for 35 years up until it was replaced by a nationwide two-child policy in 2015.
While some say the current policy will solve the fertility problem, Liang believes it is too conservative. China risks facing the sort of issues that Japan is currently experiencing in its own demography, and everything must be done to encourage Chinese people to have children, Liang argues.
There is evidence that despite the most recent change in policy, few Chinese people are interested in having more than one child. China's National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) had predicted a minimum of 20.2 million new births for 2017, but the body's latest figures show the number topped out at just 17.8 million.
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