China announces reforms to one child policy, abolition of labour camps

By James Griffiths, November 15, 2013

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According to Xinhua, the Chinese government is planning to reform the country's One Child Policy. The new system will allow couples to have two children where one parent is an only child. 

The birth policy will be adjusted and improved step by step to promote "long-term balanced development of the population in China," it said.

China's family planning policy was first introduced in the late 1970s to rein in the surging population by limiting most urban couples to one child and most rural couples to two children, if the first child born was a girl.

The policy was later relaxed, with its current form stipulating that both parents must be only children if they are to have a second child.

Also announced Friday was a plan to abolish the country's reeducation through labour camps

China will abolish the "reeducation through labor" system as part of a major effort to protect human rights, said a key policy document of the Communist Party of China (CPC) published Friday.

China will also reduce the number of crimes subject to the death penalty "step by step," according to the CPC Central Committee's decision on issues concerning comprehensively deepening reforms.

These reforms were announced during the Third Plenum of the 18th Party Congress, the characteristically dreary and interminable communique for which was released earlier this week

[Image via Xinhua]

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