Breaking News English

China has ended its decades-long one-child policy to allow [all / every] couples to have two children. The [ruler / ruling] Communist Party of China made the announcement on Thursday. The one-child policy, [official / officially] called the family planning policy, was a population control [measured / measure] that was introduced in 1979. Policy makers [hoped / hoping] to restrict the country's [surging / sagging] population and therefore control rates of [poverty / plenty] . It wasn't adhered to strictly and many [contraptions / exceptions] were allowed. In 2007, around 36 per cent of China's population was subject to a strict one-child [restriction / restricted] . An additional 53 per cent was allowed to have a second child if the first child was a girl. The new two-child policy will [reverse / reserve] China's very low fertility rate.

The new two-child policy is [expected / expectation] to provide a huge economic [boast / boost] for China and prevent it from developing into an [ageing / ageless] society. China’s labour force reached a [peak / peek] of 940 million in 2012. However, this decreased to 930 million in 2014 and was expected to fall by [another / further] 29 million by 2020. Predictions from Peking University are that there will be an average of 2.5 million [addition / extra] newborns per year. This will result [on / in] more workers and an additional $11.8 billion [in / on] annual consumption. Shares in many international baby goods companies jumped [at / by] over 10 per cent after the news was [announcement / announced] . The new policy will affect around 100 million couples.