China expands aid to rural couples with one child

China today said it would expand aid to rural couples with only one child to promote family planning, but will not ease its three-decade-old one-child policy to limit population growth.

China limits most couples to one child, but lets some poor couples have a second child if the first is a girl.

Rural Chinese families depend on their offspring to support them in old age, and have traditionally valued sons over daughters for their earning power.

In a pilot programme that will be expanded this year to 1.35 million people, rural couples over age 60 who have one child or two girls will receive at least 600 yuan (€60) a year in aid, officials said.

The programme will be expanded nationwide next year, said Pan Guiyu, vice minister for family planning.

Pan refused to characterise it as an incentive program, and denied China was moving away from penalising couples who broke the rules.

Slowing population growth is “a long-term, arduous task for us”, she said. “Family planning as a national policy will remain unchanged.”