China is abuzz about whether the time is right to have a second child, now that the family planning policy has been relaxed.

It is reported that Beijing and Yunnan Province have introduced legislation allowing couples, comprised of at least one only child, to have a second child. Many municipalities and provinces are similarly amending birth control laws.

At the earliest, the second child policy will be implemented next year, said Yang Wenzhuang, an official with the national health and family planning authority.

For a nation of 1.3 billion people, any demographic policy encouraging reproduction will have huge domestic significance and global repercussions.

At home, it means China must increase the availability of public services, such as kindergartens, schools, hospitals, and police, to meet growing needs.

Internationally, the relative new freedom will give some foreign human rights groups less ammunition to criticize China. Meanwhile, others will accuse China of producing more consumers to deplete global resources.

It is estimated that 7.5 million to 10 million couples will be affected by the second child policy. Among them 50 to 60 percent are willing but not necessarily able to raise a second child, Xinhua reported on December 21.

The partial end of the one-child in place for decades, is carefully calculated, since demographers have been saying that China’s current birth rate, hovering around 1.6 and 1.7, is too low to replenish the nation’s dwindling population, especially its work force.

These new second children will add an estimated 22 million people to the labor force by 2030, according to demographers.

While a second child Ñ except for a twin Ñ previously could cost a couple hundreds of thousands of yuan in fines, and even led to sacking of government employees and those working in state-affiliated companies. The one-child policy actually is not as rigid as many people think.

In the countryside, enforcement is generally lax, since peasants are more or less allowed to have a second child, preferably a boy, to help with farm work. Ethnic minorities are also exempted from birth control.

According to national family planning officials, the second child policy is wide-reaching, easing China’s transition into a country where the reproductive discrepancy between ethnic groups and between urban and rural populations, will finally disappear. Of course, a lot of research has to be done to prevent an explosive and catastrophic increase in population as in the 1960s.

According to media reports, the relaxed birth control policy is welcomed by all the people, some gratefully hailing the policy as a gift from the government, more precious than a pay raise.

They have reasons for cheer. But overhauling family planing is not simply inspired by human impulses, but also by harsh economic realities.

As is mentioned, China is rapidly but significantly graying, and the chronically low birth rate will lead to a severe labor shortage, threatening the growth of the world’s second largest economy.

Not long ago, it was announced that the retirement age will be postponed, so employees must continue to contribute to their pension accounts for an extended period.

Retired baby boomers

This unwelcome arrangement is necessitated by fears that there will be more retired baby boomers than young people can support, a dire scenario that might bankrupt the state’s pension system. What’s more, compared with other developing nations, such as India (and Indonesia), China’s labor force is rapidly aging, sounding the alarm for the growth dynamics.

Given the current rate, China will be the first country to officially become an aging society before it becomes a developed economy.

The new second-child policy is a dramatic demographic remedy, as well as a much-needed boost to the economy. It should also be noted,  however, that apart from economic and political benefits, permitting the birth of a second child is a humane response to the desperate needs and urges of many families.

According to last year’s statistics of the the national civil affairs authorities, there are 10 million households in China that have suffered the loss of their only child to disease, mishap or natural calamities.

These bereaved parents, many already past prime child-bearing years, will likely spend the rest of their lives in solitude, and may have to rely on relatives, nursing facilities and live-in helpers for daily and eventually hospice care Ñ traditionally the duty of their children.

Their plight must have figured in the formulation of the new birth policy.

A second child also has the added benefit of taming the tyranny of the many selfish, pampered little emperors and empresses, who as only children are doted on by their families.

There is evidence that a child growing up with siblings tends to be more tolerant, generous and willing to share.

Of course, the policy alone won’t necessarily lead to an immediate spike in sagging birth rates. Many couples will choose to remain DINK (double income no kids) as a way of life.

And while other eligible couples may wish to have a second child, they are often discouraged by the high and rising cost of raising a child through university and into wedlock.

According to Xinhua, an average couple bearing a second child in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, will likely spend between 10,000 yuan (US$1,666) and 20,000 yuan more each year. Thus, despite the strong interest inspired by the newfound birth freedom, many still take a wait-and-see attitude.

Expenses vary across regions and can be staggering in megacities like Beijing and Shanghai.

It’s not that Chinese are so cynical when it comes to raising a family. Chinese parents are long known to bestow all their love and wealth on their children. But they will be tempted to have a bigger family probably only when home prices, tuition fees and all kinds of expenses incurred during a child’s upbringing drop to affordable levels.

That’s why many Chinese often speak admiringly of Australia and Canada that provide financial incentives for bearing more children. Families are remunerated more generously with the arrival of every newborn, as a way to fight demographic woes.

The message, though unspoken, is loud and clear. Unleashing the freedom to have more than one child is only the first step, rewarding people for doing so is the next.

After all, in the past, poor extended Chinese families with five or six children managed to get by on scarce food, without much help from the state.

Today, China has enough money and resources to feed and sustain a baby boom. And it must do so if it wants to stay ahead in the bid to become a competitive global economy.