A major announcement from Beijing this morning. China has ended its one-child policy, allowing couples to have two children for the first time since the population control programme was implemented more than three decades ago. Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, announced the news via Twitter with a short statement from the Communist Party:

China to allow all couples to have two kids, ending one-child policy: CPC commuique https://t.co/KLYPWfpJ6u pic.twitter.com/9Wt2MLiY5S

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) October 29, 2015

The announcement comes on the final day of a four-day summit of the Communist Party's policy-making Central Committee. The plans to end the one child rule is part of President Xi Jinping's plans to stimulate the Chinese economy. The controversial policy was first introduced in 1979 to reduce China’s birth rate and slow the population growth rate. Couples who went against the policy faced a variety of punishments, from fines and the loss of employment to forced abortions. According to the BBC, the programme has prevented an estimated 400 million births since it began. The policy was relaxed in January 2014, allowing couples to have a second baby if one of the parents was an only child. More than three decades of the one-child policy have significantly changed the country's demographics. It's been predicted that China will become home to the most elderly population in the world in the next 15 years, with more than 400 million people over the age of 60. Today's announcement is expected to be the first of a number of major reforms taking effect in China over the next five years. [BBC]