A baby girl lies on the bed with her younger brother in Liuzhou City, Guangxi Province. [Photo/Xinua]

More than half of the births in China during the first five months of the year involved a second child – or even additional ones – more than a year after the universal second-child policy was introduced in January 2016, according to China’s top health authority.

The number of births at Chinese hospitals between January and May was 7.4 million, an increase of 7.8 percent over the same period last year, Wang Peian, vice-minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said at an annual meeting of the China Population Association held in Kunming, Yunnan Province, last week.

Of all births in the first five months, 57.7 percent were at least the second child of their parents, an increase of 8.5 percentage points over the same period last year, he said.

The total number of births at hospitals in China last year was about 18.5 million, the highest level since 2000, according to the commission. More than 99 percent of births in China take place in hospitals.

The universal second-child policy has produced good results, and the number of babies born has been increasing significantly despite a drop in the number of women of fertile age, Wang said.

Over the past year, health authorities have been improving measures to support the policy and establish a social environment that encourages childbirth, he said.

With an increasing number of pregnancies, China faces some health challenges in the next few years – for example, a significant number of the mothers are over 35 – according to health officials and doctors. The number of pregnant women over age 35 is expected to remain at about 3 million through 2020.

“Surveys show that many couples from the generation born in the 1970s who were hesitant about having a second child during the initial period when the universal second-child policy was adopted are now hurrying to give birth to a second child so they won’t miss that last chance,” Ma Xiaowei, another vice-minister of the commission, said last week.

In Guilin, in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, more than 28 percent of women who gave birth last year were at higher risk in pregnancy and childbirth, according to a report in Guilin Evening News on Friday. One factor was age.

At Guilin Women and Children’s Hospital, doctors saved 140 pregnant women in critical condition in the first half of the year. The oldest pregnant woman treated so far this year was 56, the report said.

China introduced its family planning policy in the late 1970s to check its soaring population by limiting most urban couples to one child. Couples in rural areas could have a second child if the first one was a girl, and in some ethnic regions couples in rural areas could have more than two children.

A major policy change at the end of 2013 allowed couples nationwide to have a second child if either parent was an only child. That limitation was erased last year.

The Beijing police are hunting for a man who allegedly stabbed five people and committed a hit-and-run that killed one and injured eight others on his way to escape on Sunday.

The suspect hurt five people with a scissor around 3 p.m. in Jugezhuang Township in the suburban district of Miyun and fled on a van. His van then hit nine people, leaving one dead and eight injured, according to the police.

The injured are being treated in hospital. The Miyun police are searching for the suspect who is still at large.

An environmental impact assessment for a new high-speed railway linking Beijing and Xiongan New Area was released on Saturday. It was the first public acknowledgment that a new line will be built.

China Railway Design Corp announced the assessment on its website and is seeking public comment.

According to the notice, the Beijing-Xiongan railway will start at Liying in Beijing’s Daxing district, pass through Langfang and terminate at Xiongan East Railway Station－a total length of 100.3 kilometers.

The new line will also pass through the capital’s new airport, which will be about 36 km from Liying and about 64 km from Xiongan New Area. The airport is expected to open in 2019.

The existence of a railway plan was reported in April by Tianjin News. According to the report, a planning map showed two railway stations in the new area－Xiongan Railway Station and Xiongan East Railway Station. The environmental assessment covers the latter.

According to an earlier report, the Tianjin-Xiongan railway route will connect the area with Tianjin’s new railway station, which is also in the planning stages.

An older rail line is already in operation. Passengers must transfer in Baoding or Tianjin to get to the Xiongan area on high-speed rail.

Since July 7, four daily high-speed railway services have been started. The journey takes one hour and 50 minutes.

The new Beijing-Xiongan line follows a different route.

Xiongan New Area is located in the center of a triangular area defined by Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province.

Located about 100 km southwest of downtown Beijing, the new area will mostly cover Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin counties in Hebei.

It will eventually encompass 2,000 square kilometers, with a population of up to 2.5 million people.

Under the area’s development plan, a major transportation network should be in place in Xiongan by 2020. The area will be well connected to Beijing, Tianjin and other cities in Hebei by 2022, when the Winter Olympic Games will be held.

Xiongan New Area is intended to house the bulk of Beijing’s noncapital functions, including some administrative and public institutions, company headquarters, financial institutions, higher education institutions, and science and technology units.