China has announced it will be ending its controversial one-child policy.
According to the BBC couples will now be allowed to have two children, ending the one-child policy that the ruling Communist Party introduced back in 1979 – to try and slow population growth.
The policy has been estimated to have stopped about 400 million births, however China’s ageing population has now caused the government concern.
Anyone who violated the one-child policy was punished, with these ranging from fines and loss of employment to forced abortion.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency released a statement from the Communist Party which said the decision was made because they wanted to improve the ‘development of the population’ as well as dealing with an ageing population problem.
