The China National Philatelic Corporation has unveiled a new stamp featuring a happy family with three piglets. The stamp, to be published on Jan. 5 of 2019, the Year of the Pig, has started ongoing speculations that the Chinese government will now allow couples to have three children.
The speculations have a firm basis, The Wall Street Journal noted. In 2016, when the government abandoned its one-child policy and welcomes a family of two kids, the Year of the Monkey stamp featured two chimpanzees.
"It's a clear sign that they are going to abandon all birth restrictions," Yi Fuxian told The Wall Street Journal. Yi is a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has followed China's birth policy closely.
Indeed, many Chinese believed that the 2019 stamp design is an indication that the government is finally open to a large family.
"Judging from the new stamp design, you can tell China will encourage people to have three kids in 2019," Sven Shi wrote on China's popular microblogging website Weibo as first reported by Reuters. Shi believed that the move is aimed at preventing the further shrinking of the labor force in China in the future.
Still, there are those who reject the idea, citing inadequate social security and slowing income growth. There are those who also believed that people would be discouraged to have more children. Those who are single may even decide not to get married.
But some users remain skeptical of further relaxing birth controls, saying inadequate social security and slowing income growth may continue to discourage bigger families.
Many economists were of the opinion that China's one-child policy implemented in 1980 left the country with an aging population at present. It created a significant gap in the country's labor force. There is no enough working demographics at present to sustain China's economic growth.
The two-child policy meanwhile failed to meet the expected rise in population. There was an increase in the number of newborns from 2016 when the policy was introduced, but it was less than what was estimated. In 2017, births have declined once again and failed to meet the forecast of more than 20 million.
ECNS.cn reported that Han Meilin, the 82-year-old designer of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games mascot "Fuwa," has designed the 2019 Year of the Pig stamp. Ham was also the one who developed the Chinese Lunar Year of the Rooster stamp in 2017.
Han designed his first stamp for the Year of the Pig in 1983. The latest stamp was the fourth generation of China Post's "happy family" theme.
