China Easing One-Child Rules?

China is considering easing some of the rules in its famous one-child-per-family policy, a former family-planning official told China Daily Wednesday. The official, Zhang Weiqing, said the government is drafting proposals allowing urban families to have two children even if the parents themselves are not only children, which is the current rule. The current policy allows for rural families to have more than one child. Demographers have warned that the policy, enacted in 1979, has created a rapidly aging population that may not be able to compete in the global economy. Additionally, the policy has come under harsh scrutiny over the years as a cause of forced abortions—this year, a woman in Shaanxi said she was forced by officials to terminate her pregnancy at seven months, despite that forced abortions are illegal.