A new study conducted by the Chinese think-tank China Development Research Foundation (CDRF) has urged the government to soon drop its controversial one-child policy that is imposed on every family with little exception.

Official Chine news agency Xinhua released on Tuesday advanced copies of the CDRF report, which essentially labelled Beijing's strict family planning rule as "demographic timebomb."

The limitations stipulated in the government measure no longer serve the general interest of an ageing Chinese population, which in turn would be left to confront an ever-expanding economy that in early 2012 became the world's second biggest, the foundation report said.

"China has paid a huge political and social cost for the policy, as it has resulted in social conflict, high administrative costs and led indirectly to a long-term gender imbalance at birth," the report was quoted by Agence France Presse (AFP) as saying on Thursday.

"Problems in population structure, quality and distribution have become increasingly visible and will have a profound impact on China's future social and economic development," CDRF added on the report.

China will be best served to gradually relax on the enforcement of the rule, which was first imposed in 1980, and gradually allow Chinese families to have two children by 2015.

Mostly affected by the government restriction, which Beijing has maintained was largely successful in decongesting the national population by at least 400 million in the past 30 years, are families based in urban areas.

By 2020, China should be fully prepared to strike down the policy and allow its citizens to "make more rational decisions on birth issues."

The CDRF report, according to Cai Yong, a visiting scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai, strongly signalled that Chinese authorities are strongly considering the revision or even elimination of the policy, noting that the foundation is known to enjoy close ties with Beijing officials.

"That tells us at least that policy change is inevitable, it's coming but we cannot predict when exactly it will come," Mr Cai told the Australian Associated Press (AAP) today.