New | Time to end China's one-child policy urgently: government advisers warn of demographic crisis ahead

Government advisers have strengthened calls for China to further ease its stringent one-child policy urgently, ahead of a meeting this month during which the Communist Party's decision-making body will set the tone for national economic and social development for the next five years.

In a report recently submitted to the authorities, China's top think tanks urged Beijing to immediately relax restrictions on the number of children couples are allowed to have, according to an academic with knowledge of the matter.

The report was based on a survey jointly conducted by several institutes including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Renmin University and a think tank under the national family planning office, said the academic, who did not want to be named.

"There is already a consensus among China's demographers that the limits should be relaxed," said Wang Feng, a demographer with the University of California, Irvine, and a guest professor at Fudan University. "It's … already too late to be doing so."

While the survey's contents were not made public, an earlier report by the China Business Network, a consultancy group, said it included predictions of the population trend and when it would peak. The survey had been commissioned by the decision-making authorities, highlighting the likelihood of a revision in the policy, the group said.