Not long after midnight on New Year’s Eve, Zhou Meifen gave birth to her second child — dodging China’s $12,000 birth control tax by just a few minutes.
The 36-year-old interior designer was one of the earliest to take advantage of the country’s new rule which allows families to have two children instead of just one, NBC News reported. The one-child mandate had been in effect since 1979.
According to China’s Health and Family Planning Commission, 90 million couples qualify for a second child. The country expects the number of babies born each year to rise from 16 million to around 20 to 24 million.
The one-child policy was replaced due to fears of an aging population, shrinking workforce, and gender imbalance.
