Population minister Wang Xia says one-child policy here to stay

Measures to keep the national birth rate low are going to be around "for a long time", according to the top family planning official. She dismissed speculation the one-child policy would be scrapped this year.

However, Wang Xia said that authorities would gradually ease restrictions for certain people.

"The policy should be a long-term one, and its primary goal is to maintain a low birth rate and be gradually perfected," Wang, minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, said at a national conference, Xinhua reported.

Professor Lu Jiehua , of Peking University's Institute of Population Research, said the government's population policy should go beyond a one-child policy while still keeping growth in the population of the world's most populous country at sustainable levels.

"Population policy is always a long-term project," he said. "The central government's 12th five-year plan pledged to make revisions to the one-child policy by 2015.

"In fact, our one-child policy has been loosened in the past few years, especially in coastal and developed cities, with local governments allowing couples who were both born into one-child families to have a second child."