China’s top health authority has denied that it will lift birth control restrictions in the northeast of the country, reported the South China Morning Post.
Last week, the National Health Commission triggered speculation it was going to end limits on the number of children families could have in three provinces – Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Jilin – after it said it would allow them to experiment with new policies to reverse the region’s population decline.
But on Saturday it issued a clarification saying that was the wrong interpretation of its comments and it was “not the [NHC’s] intention”.
“We believe that there are various reasons behind the long-term population decrease in the northeastern area and it’s not an issue that can be solved solely by lifting birth restrictions,” it said in the latest statement.