(Newser)
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China will keep up its one-child policy over the next decade as nearly 200 million citizens reach child-bearing age, CNN reports. "Given such a large population base, there would be major fluctuations in population growth if we abandoned the one-child rule now," said the country's family planning minister, responding to reports that the country might consider change.
Some economists think the government’s fear of overpopulation has blinded it to the danger of a low-fertility scenario like that facing Japan or Korea. While China’s population is still growing, the average birth rate is 1.8 children per couple—under the 2.1 a population needs to replace itself.
