Three-piglet stamps hint at easing of China’s child limits

NEW national stamps featuring a family with three piglets have given rise to speculation that China may soon relax its two-child family planning laws.

The stamps for 2019, the Year of the Pig, which feature mother and father pigs and three piglets, were unveiled yesterday.

Commentators noted that the scrapping of the decades-old one-child policy in 2015, in favour of a two-child policy, was preceded by the release of a stamp for 2016, the Year of the Monkey, featuring two baby monkeys.

The abandonment of the controversial policy, introduced in 1979 to encourage economic growth, has not been followed by the baby boom authorities were hoping for in a bid to counteract an ageing population. It was reported earlier this year that China’s cabinet, the state council, was exploring the possibility of dropping limits entirely to stimulate family growth.

Figures showed that only a million more babies were born in 2016 than 2015. The lag has been blamed on the lack of women of a childbearing age, a consequence of the one-child policy, which often led to female infanticide because of a preference for sons.

Men outnumbered women by 33 million in 2017.

Other factors blamed for the slow rise in the birth rate include high living costs and expensive childcare.

The new stamps are further evidence that the government is likely to scrap all limits, Yi Fuxian, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-madison, told The Wall Street Journal. “It’s a clear sign that they are going to abandon all birth restrictions,” Mr Yi said.