China has formally announced that it will no longer hold to the restriction that people are only allowed to bear one child. On Thursday, the Chinese government announced that its policy of one child per family will no longer be practical as China moves forward.

It was, perhaps, the greatest and largest attempt at population control in human history. However, Chinese leaders are feeling economic pressures to eliminate the restriction, according to The Washington Post. The Chinese leadership has just wrapped up a meeting of the Communist party and have decided that an aging population presents risks especially with regard to future labor shortages.

The Communist party leadership stated that it would now allow couples to have two children as they are coming to grips with the economic impact an aging population will have in both the short term and in the long term. The Chinese leadership went on to say that they are planning ahead to promote a balanced growth in the population so that the country won’t find itself short of workers in the future.

The one child dictate in China was established back in 1980 but has had some of the restrictions loosened since 2012 or so. Many analysts see the Communist party at a crossroads. Many feel it is threatened by the current instability and fear that they may be overthrown if economic conditions, as well as social conditions, don’t begin to change. The younger population is especially enamored with capitalism and the West and wants to see the country moving toward establishing many of the freedoms enjoyed by Western nations.

Because China only averages about 1.4 children per woman, they are now facing immediate and swift changes in their cultural ad economic conditions. Huge amount of money and resources must now be turned toward the elderly and their health care concerns. So, too, must they deicide how they will run an economy with fewer and fewer people of working age every year.