US newspaper: China is considering ending all restrictions on childbearing by 2025

The American newspaper "The Wall Street Journal" reported that Chinese officials plan to loosen more restrictions on births, and are considering the possibility of eliminating them all by 2025.

The newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying that authorities will likely start ending restrictions in counties with the lowest birth equipment, and plans include policies to publicly encourage having children.

Beijing announced last month to ease the two-child policy, allowing all couples to have a third child, while trying to slow the decline in the birth rate, but economists and demographers said that this was too little and too late, and did not prevent the eventual decline in the population.

Researchers at China's central bank called earlier this year for a complete end to birth restrictions. The debate increased after the results of the last census, which showed the lowest number of births in nearly 60 years, and a decline in the working-age population over the past decade, was revealed.

Wall Street said policymakers were discussing the possibility of ending all birth restrictions by the end of the ruling Communist Party's five-year economic plan in 2025.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told senior Party officials last month that he considers China's aging population to be a threat to national security, and called on top officials to rise to the challenge, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

And the American newspaper pointed out that any easing of restrictions on childbearing may start in the Shale region of eastern China, which health authorities indicated last February that it may take the lead in canceling all restrictions on births.