China plans to loosen its “one child” family planning policy, a move that would allow more couples to have two children, the ruling Communist Party said on Friday.
The party will allow couples to have two children if one of the parents is an only child, a change that could benefit millions of Chinese couples, especially in urban areas.
The party announced the change as part of a broad package of dozens of economic and social reforms, in a blueprint for the next decade under new leader Xi Jinping.
Xi said the party will set up a “leading group” to oversee the reforms and enhance the party’s role “in commanding the overall situation of the country and coordinating all aspects,” the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Implementation of the reform package is “far beyond the ability of one or a few departments and requires the establishment of a higher-level leadership mechanism,” Xi was quoted as saying. China’s current family planning policy only allows a couple to have two children if both parents are single children.
Other couples in urban areas are restricted to one child, while those in rural areas are allowed a second child if their first is a girl.
The government hailed the policy, introduced in 1978, as a success that allowed it to limit the growth of China’s population, the world’s largest, at some 1.35 billion.
But rights groups have reported many abuses, including enforced abortions and sterilizations to ensure that families have only one child.
Labour camps
The party also promised to abolish its controversial “re-education through labour” camps, which were used to detain people without trial for up to four years.
Many dissidents, legal activists and other opponents of party officials were detained alongside petty criminals in the camps.
The party’s top security official said in January that China would stop using the camps this year. Some of the camps are already empty, according to reports by state media and rights groups.
The party also announced that it will gradually reduce the number of crimes subject to death penalty and set up a new state security committee.
“State security and social stability are preconditions for reform and development,” Xi said, explaining the party’s reasons for setting up the committee.
Economic reforms
Among the major economic measures are plans to: allow private banks; allow markets to set energy pricing; and encourage private capital in many sectors.
The party plans to “open up the banking sector wider, on condition of strengthened regulation, by allowing qualified private capital to set up small and medium-sized banks.”
It said it wants to “allow more non-state-owned capital into the market in order to develop a more mixed-ownership economy.”
It vowed to reduce income gaps “between urban and rural areas, different regions and sectors.” The capital gains tax rate for state firms will rise to 30 per cent by 2020, from the current range of 0 to 15 per cent, it said.