The Chinese government’s decision yesterday to raise the number of children a woman is permitted to have to three represents a triumph of hope over experience. The two-child policy that it replaces

The Chinese governments decision yesterday to raise the number of children a woman is permitted to have to three represents a triumph of hope over experience. The two-child policy that it replaces proved an abject failure in reversing the countrys looming population decline. Since Beijing first allowed women to have more than one baby in 2015, the number of births in China has continued to decline. Only 12 million babies were born last year, compared with nearly 18 million in 2016. The latest census figures, released last month after a mysterious delay, showed that Chinas population growth had slowed dramatically. It rose by 5.4 per cent over the previous ten years to 1.41 billion. And with a fertility rate of 1.3 babies per woman, well