The Chinese government may consider providing families with financial incentives for the second child in an attempt to achieve higher targets in the birth rate.

It marks a sharp turn from a one-child policy in the country, when there was a severe punishment for what families want to have more than one child, including fines and forced abortions.

The Deputy Minister of the National Commission on health and family planning van Payne said that the Commission is considering such incentives for the birth of the second child as "subsidies". Wang made the remarks on Saturday at a meeting of the Academy of social security of China, which works closely with the government. The representative of the organization declined to comment on the words of van on CNN.

The ad was partly caused by the NHFPC survey conducted in 2015, which shows that 60% of the surveyed families did not want to have a second child due to financial constraints, according to China Daily.

China abolished the one-child policy in October 2015, allowing couples to have two children. The birth rate has increased since then, but the government is trying to respond to a higher purpose in the birth rate, the aging of the population. Professor of sociology at Peking University, Lu Zhihua said that financial incentives for the second child are "a positive signal". "Financial incentives will require more effort on the part of other government agencies to cover the costs of child rearing, which is a more important factor than the birth rate," said Lou.

The one-child policy was introduced in 1979, when the government feared the rapid growth of population after the baby boom of the 1950-ies and 1960-ies.
sections: Politics, World News