China’s Two-Child Policy, Five Years On

On Oct. 29, 2015, the Chinese government made the historic decision to end its controversial one-child policy and allow every family to have two children.

It was a change rooted in economic pragmatism. Though China remains the world’s most populous nation, its birth rate had been declining for years. Easing the family-planning rules was designed to avoid — or at least mitigate — a looming demographic crisis.

Five years later, the hoped-for baby boom has largely failed to materialize. Yet the two-child policy has had a deep impact on families across the country — often in surprising ways. There also remains huge uncertainty about how China’s birth-control regime will develop in the future.

In this series, Sixth Tone speaks with families, family-planning officials, and policymakers to provide fresh insights into how the two-child policy has affected society, how the restrictions are enforced, and what the government might do to fix the existing challenges.