China is moving to ease restrictions on its one-child policy, Chinese policymakers announced Friday. The new rules will allow parents who are themselves only children to have two children.
Therese Hesketh told WPR in August that changes to the policy were seen in China as inevitable:
The policy has achieved its original goal of reducing population growth and lifting many out of poverty. It has also become an anachronism as freedoms have increased in many areas of life; as growing wealth means many can afford the fines; and as China becomes a key player in the global community and can no longer operate a coercive policy that is seen by many as a violation of human rights.
One of the strongest claims against the one-child policy has been its secondary effects on China's gender ratio. In a 2011 briefing, Valerie Hudson explained that limiting most families to having only one child resulted on average in familes having more sons than daughters:
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