Published : 2024-05-31

On May 31, 2021, Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of CPC Central Committee and announced the implementation of the "Three-Child Policy" (三孩政策).

According to an official media report from Xinhua News Agency, the meeting reviewed the report on positive responses to significant policy measures for the ageing population during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period and deliberated on the "Decision on Improving Birth Policies to Promote Long-term Balanced Population Growth".

The meeting pointed out that since the 18th Party Congress, the Central Committee of CPC had made significant decisions and deployments such as the implementation of the "One-Child Policy" and the "Two-Child Policy" based on the changing situation of China's population development, and these have achieved positive results.

However, as the meeting stated, with China's large population and the deepening aging population in recent years, it is necessary to further optimise the birth policy and "implement a policy where a couple can have three children and supporting measures, which is beneficial to improving the country's population structure, implementing active responses to the aging population national strategy, and maintaining China's human resources advantage".

The meeting emphasised that party committees and governments at all levels should strengthen overall planning, policy coordination and implementation, and organise the implementation of the Three-Child Birth Policy according to the law, promote the compatibility between of birth policies and related economic and social policies, and improve the mechanism for assessing the demographic impact of major economic and social policies.