China’s cruel and inhumane one child policy is finally reaping a dividend the central planners apparently didn’t foresee: the country has a dearth of young people and even with restrictions being lifted, they are not inclined to procreate.

An op-ed in a state-run newspaper titled “Giving birth is a family matter and a national issue too” is the latest to encourage couples to have more children, and call for official action to enable young people to start families.

The full-page column was published in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party. It warned that “the impact of low birth rates on the economy and society has begun to show.”

The piece comes as the government revealed a new official postage stamp, which seems to hint that it may drop the remaining restrictions on the number of children people can have.

The one child policy was expanded to a two child policy in 2015 resulting in an immediate increase in births the following year. The jump was short lived however as 2017 witnessed a decrease in the number of births.