Beijing: China’s ruling Communist Party on Saturday announced it will loosen the controversial decades-long one-child policy and abolish the dreaded labour camp system as part of major social reforms in the world’s most populous nation.
The recently held Plenum of the Communist Party of China (CPC), headed by Chinese President and CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping, approved changes to the three-decades-old one-child policy allowing couples to have two children if one of the parents hailed form a one-child family.
The new regulation would permit millions of couples born as one-child under the stringently imposed family planning policy implemented since in 1970s restricting the population growth to about 1.4 billion.
The new policy was aimed at addressing the rapidly ageing Chinese population due to the one-child policy.
According to last year’s official report, China had about 185 million people above the age of 60 or 13.7 per cent of the population.
The figure is expected to surge to 221 million in 2015, including 51 million “empty nesters,” or elderly people whose children no longer live with them, which makes it incumbent on the government to improve their social security management involving large amounts of funds.
The old coercive policy restricted most of the urban couples to have one child and most rural couples to have two children, if the first child was a girl. It was later relaxed to its current form, stipulating that both parents must be only children if they are to have a second child.
The social reforms package has come after sweeping new economic reforms were announced by the party to revitalise the world’s second largest economy which had slowed down from double-digit figures to around 7 per cent.
The Plenum consisting of over 376 members of the Central Committee in its four-day meeting held from November 9 to 12 has also decided to abolish the “re-education through labour” system as part of a major effort to protect human rights.
The system under which people were condemned to labour camps for resorting to any protests drew flack both at home and abroad.
The decision puts to rest reports that Xi failed to get approval for the move to abolish it. Also, the party has ordered to reduce the number of crimes subject to the death penalty “step by step”.
According to international human rights bodies, China has the highest execution rate with organs of those executed persons in great demand.
The party has also ordered to reform the petition system which has caused social disturbance all over the country as people were restricted from sending petitions to top officials and leaders.
China will set up a system for online petitioning and strive to settle people’s cases timely at the local level, according to the party’s decision. Petitioning is the administrative system for hearing public complaints and grievances.
People who are not satisfied with government decisions can request re-examination of their matters. But after re-examination and review, matters are closed.
The termination procedure was sometimes abused by local authorities, resulting in inappropriate settlements of cases. This led to public anger. The country will work to ban extorting confessions through torture and physical abuse, a party document said. Courts will be told to tighten the practice of ruling out illegally obtained evidence while law enforcement agencies will regulate procedures of sealing up, seizing, freezing and handling properties involved in judicial investigations.
Wrong judgements will be prevented and corrected in a better way and those responsible will be investigated and could face punishment. The country will also work to improve legal aid for citizens. “Lawyers will play an important role in protecting the legal rights and interests of citizens and corporations in line with the law,” the document said. Their rights to practice will be protected and their malpractice will be punished under improved systems, it said. Among the social reforms, the changes in the once-child policy holds great significance and reflect a change of stance in the country’s new leadership to address the looming demographic imbalance. The one-child policy already exempts rural dwellers and ethnic minorities. The one-child policy, though applauded by many for slowing down China’s population growth, has been widely criticised for resulting in forced abortions and hefty fines that are sometimes used to enforce it. (PTI)
