Following family planning riots and accounts of forced abortions, a spokesperson from the National Population and Family Planning Commission explains China’s one-child policy, downplaying its severity, and announces that single-child parents can have a second child. From Jongo News:
Less than 40 percent of the population is restricted by the family planning policy to having one child, a senior official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission said yesterday.
While popularly referred to as the “one child policy”, the rule actually restricts just 35.9 percent of the population to having one child, Yu Xuejun, a spokesman with the commission, said in a Webcast on the government’s website (www.gov.cn).
Except in Central China’s Henan Province, couples can have two children if they are both only children, he said.
In addition, more than 11 percent of the population, mostly minority groups, is free to have two or more children, he said. [Full Text]
