Eye of Modok

China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission has loosened its stance on the national family planning policy, commonly known in the West as the “one child policy”. A common misconception about the family planning policy is that it only allows all couples throughout China to have one child. In fact, the one child policy is limited to urban areas. Parents in rural areas may have two children, as they are expected to support the parents in old age.

Local governments have always implemented their own policies, and many of them have allowed parents from single child families to have up to two children, so the official stance is actually merely reflecting what has been in actual practice for quite some time. Ethnic minority parents are also allowed two children in most provinces. I have several acquaintances in Beijing who have “purchased” the right to another child, by paying “social compensation fees” - an option obviously only available to the relatively well off.

Unaffected by the loosening of the policy are parents in Henan Province. With a population over 97 million, Henan is the most populous province in China.

The national family planning policy is credited with delaying China’s reaching the 1.4 billion people mark by four years.