A few weeks ago, contrary to speculations among the Chinese, Zhao Baige, deputy director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission of China, announced that the country would be continuing with its one-child policy for another five-year term starting 2011.
China and India, the world's two most populous nations, have initiated discussions on stabilising the global population, Beijing's top official on family planning said in Beijing on Tuesday.
China on Friday said about 90 million couples will qualify to have a second child after it scrapped its controversial decades-old one-child policy, raising the number of people in the world's most populous nation to 1.45 billion by 2030.
Facing a sharp decline in work force, Shanghai authorities have appealed to "qualified young couples" to have second child as 30 per cent population of China's biggest business hub will be aged 60 or above by this year's end, official media reported on Wednesday.
China continued to have pockets of poverty despite massive development.
Playing down reports of a poor response to removal of the decades-old one-child policy, China on Tuesday said that besides generating a labour force of 30 million by 2050, the new policy could also boost stagnating growth in the world's second-largest economy.
The massive earthquake in Sichuan struck at 9:19 pm (local time) on Tuesday and the epicentre was monitored at a depth of 20 km, state-run Xinhua new agency reported.