CHINA ENDS ONE-CHILD POLICY, ALLOWS TWO CHILDREN FOR EACH COUPLE

China will ease family planning restrictions to allow all couples to have two children after decades of the strict and controversial one-child policy, a move aimed at alleviating demographic strains on the economy.

The move is a major liberalisation of the country's family planning restrictions, already eased in late 2013 when Beijing said it would allow more families to have two children when the parents met certain conditions.

A growing number of people had urged the government to reform the rules, introduced in 1980 to prevent population growth spiralling out of control, but now regarded as outdated and responsible for shrinking China's labour pool.

For the first time in decades the working age population fell in 2012, and China, the world's most populous nation, could be the first country in the world to get old before it gets rich.

The announcement was made at the close of a key party meeting in Beijing to chart the course of the world's second largest economy over the next five years.

It's an event that we have been waiting for for a generation - Chinese sociologist Wang Feng

China will "fully implement a policy of allowing each couple to have two children as an active response to an ageing population", the party said in a statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

There were no immediate details on the new policy or a timeframe for implementation.

Wang Feng, a leading expert on demographic and social change in China, called the change an "historic event" that would change the world but said the challenges of China's aging society would remain.

"It's an event that we have been waiting for for a generation, but it is one we have had to wait much too long for," Mr Wang said.

"It won't have any impact on the issue of the aging society, but it will change the character of many young families."

William Nee, a China researcher at human rights campaign group Amnesty International, welcomed the move, but urged China to go further.

"China should immediately and completely end its control over people's decisions to have children," he said.

"This would not only be good for improving human rights, but would also make sense given the stark demographic challenges that lie ahead."

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