Caixin (February 19) reported that China’s National Health Commission had suggested to northeastern regional governments that they assess the impact of fully abolishing limits on the number of births and put forward a pilot program for implementing a comprehensive family planning policy in the region. The suggestion was made in a response on its website to a proposal by some delegates to the National People’s Congress. They proposed that the northeastern region, known as China’s rust belt with the lowest birthrates in the country, should take the lead in fully removing birth restrictions. Home to about 109 million of China’s 1.4 billion people, the three provinces are Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning.

(Comment: Faced with an ageing population, China in 2015 officially ended the one-child policy adopted in 1979 after slowly relaxing the rules to allow couples fitting certain criteria to have a second child. Now, all couples are allowed to have two children. In Heilongjiang, couples who are residents of border areas are allowed to have three children.)