Low births despite push for second child

Happy with one: Parents and children playing together during the grand opening of a Hamleys toy store in Beijing. The birthrate in China fell in 2017 despite the country allowing all couples to have two children. — AP

Beijing: The number of births in China fell last year even though the world’s most populous country has relaxed its one-child policy to allow all couples to have two children.

The country saw 17.23 million births in 2017, compared to 17.86 million in the previous year, the head of the National Bureau of Statistics, Ning Jizhe, said on Thursday.