Beijing ( CNN ) In China , you can often tell what the Communist Party is thinking by watching TV . For years , the typical on-screen Chinese family looked something like this : Glowing parents doting over one precious child . The taglines drummed it home : `` One hope . '' `` One joy . '' `` One responsibility . '' Lately , the perfect television family has changed . In a recent commercial , a boy begrudgingly shares a toy with his younger sister , then they all gather together with a large brood to watch the televised Lunar New Year Gala . The message appears to be : Two is better than one . The change is extraordinary . Since the early 1980s , the Party has enforced a draconian one-child policy on most Chinese to curb population growth . When the propaganda did n't work , local officials have resorted to abortions , heavy fines , and forced sterilization . It 's perhaps the most hated policy in China . Now , under relaxed restrictions announced just over a year ago , couples like Yang Xue and Chang Zi'an , both professionals working in Beijing , are eligible for a second child to join their baby girl -- 11-month-old Tao Zi , or Little Peach . Chang was an only child but sometimes wished for a sibling while growing up . `` Once my cousin visited and we shared a bed for several nights , '' says Chang , now an engineer . `` I enjoyed that feeling . I wished I had a brother who could share a bed with me every night . '' Chang and his young family live in Tongzhou , on the eastern outskirts of Beijing , where high rise apartments compete with mega malls . Some call the area `` Tong-afornia , '' because its sprawl of young professionals is a bit like parts of the Golden State . They are ideal candidates , it would seem , to have a second child . The Party is in a race against the clock . China faces a rapidly aging population and shrinking workforce . The government says the country could become home to the most elderly population on the planet in just 15 years , with more than 400 million over the age of 60 . Researchers say healthcare and social services will all be burdened by the greying population , and the world 's second largest economy will struggle to maintain its growth . `` China has already begun to feel an unfolding crisis in terms of its population change , '' says Wang Feng , a professor at Fudan University and a leading demographic expert on China . `` History will look back to see the one-child policy as one of the most glaring policy mistakes that China has made in its modern history . '' Perhaps surprisingly , Wang says that the one-child policy was both ineffective and unnecessary , since China 's fertility rates were already slowing by the 1980s . The Chinese government still maintains that it was necessary to keep numbers down . But with around 150 million one-child families and a shrinking population , the Chinese government is moving cautiously , rather than doing away with the policy altogether . In January 2014 , China said it would allow couples to have a second baby if the mother or father was an only child themselves . But , to the surprise of many , the new rules have n't yet sparked a baby boom . Nationwide , nearly one million couples have applied to have a second child , state media reported in January . Health officials had said that the policy would lead to as many as two million new births when the policy change was first announced . Yang and Chang both have good jobs , but rent in Tongzhou is sky-high . And they want to send little Tao Zi to a private bilingual English and Chinese pre-school to help her in the ultra-competitive Chinese education system . Even if they were richer , they say they would n't want a second child . `` Money is only part of the problem , '' says Yang . `` Your energy and your time is also important . We both have to work . It is hard enough to raise her as a success . It will be miserable if we had to go through that again . '' As for his cousin 's sleepovers , Chang wants to clarify . `` It was great having him over , but I was also happy when he went home . '' CNN 's Shen Lu contributed to this report .
China 's controversial around 150 million-child policy was recently relaxed . However , there 's been no big rush for a second child . Many couples say the financial cost is too great .