1 . Are you the only child in your family? If so, do you enjoy it or do you want more siblings（兄弟姐妹）?

On May 31, a key meeting of the Communist Party of China unveiled a policy that would allow all couples to have up to three children.

The move is expected to maximize the population's role in driving economic and social growth, since this is a critical time for China to transform the world's most populous country into a powerhouse（强国）with a quality workforce, according to the National Health Commission.

The three-child policy is also expected to prevent the decline in the nation's birthrate and address the challenge of a rapidly aging population, China Daily reported.

China's annual number of newborns has fallen for four years in a row. The country's total birthrate—the average number of children born to each woman—stood at 1.3 in 2020. The number is below the rate of 2.1 that would maintain a stable population, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The declining birthrate has also brought a sharp increase in the proportion of the population aged 60 or above, rising from 10.3 percent to 18.7 percent in the past decade. An increasingly elderly population will increase the cost of labor and the pressure on the social security net. It also means there will be a lack of young labor force. Therefore, it's not good for economic growth, according to Chen Youhua, a professor at Nanjing University.

In fact, the new birth policy is a step to further relax the family planning policy. The one-child policy was introduced in the 1970s and aimed to control the fast-growing population. Then in 2013, China allowed couples to have a second child if either parent was an only child, and in 2016, all couples were allowed to have two children.

However, not all people have shown their support for this latest policy. Many couples complained about the rising costs of raising a child. A netizen named Qinfeng commented, "High cost of education and both the physical and mental exhaustion stopped me from having more than one child." Also, many women are reluctant（不情愿的）to give birth because that could mean sacrificing their career prospects, according to Mu Guangzong, a professor at Peking University.

In that case, Mu noted that it is better to implement supporting measures with the three-child policy, such as more preferential（优惠的）policies for couples that would ease their parental burden.

3 . In China, 2020 was bid farewell with a series of fireworks and the scratching off of 200 million metric tons of plastic straws from the nation’s pollution stocks.

The ban comes into effect first with two items, plastic straws and single-use shopping bags, with other single-use plastics to follow. China is one of fewer than 10 nations to ban plastic straws completely.

The ban was announced in the Party's new Five-Year Plan in January 2021, and aims to reduce plastic pollution while moving to biodegradable alternatives, starting with plastic straws.

But there is something unique that makes a plastic straw ban in China have more effect than other countries, and it isn't the fact that it is the most populous nation. It’s that paper and polylactic acid compound straws will replace plastic ones in the people’s favorite drink — tapioca pearl tea, also known as milk or bubble tea.

Chinese consumers love milk tea. These treats, often taking the place of the West‘s morning coffee, are drunk through plastic straws larger and thicker than those we would recognize from a McDonald‘s as they must be able to adapt to the movement of the “bubbles” of tapioca pudding.

Milk tea chains like Nayuki in Shanghai have already been using paper straws for most of the year ahead of the first stage of the plastic ban scheduled to start in 2021. One Chinese news agency reports that while prices for biodegradable alternatives to straws and bags are more expensive, the ban has seen the market share for bio-plastics increase to an expected $7.3 billion in 2025, and a further doubling to $ 13.9 billion by 2030, suggesting the cost will rapidly decrease as more companies enter the market with new technologies.