China May Start Paying Couples to Have Children

The Chinese government is looking into the possibility of providing financial incentives to encourage couples to have more children as the country faces a shrinking workforce due to its one-child policy.

China’s National Health Commission reportedly organized experts to look at the possibility of reducing the cost of having children in the country as well as rewarding parents depending on the number of children they have, according to The Paper via South China Morning Post.

The research conducted by experts is the latest sign of Chinese policymakers taking more drastic measures since the policy was scrapped in 2015, allowing families to have two children instead of one.

According to Bloomberg, China plans to completely remove the number limit of children that families can have from only two.

Last year, the National Bureau of Statistics saw a 3.5% drop in childbirth in the country, which is about 17.2 million people. Parents became concerned as raising two or more children proved to be more costly than raising one.

China’s one-child policy was established by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 as a “temporary measure” for the country’s population growth. However, the policy remained active and in practice for 35 years.

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