Hopes for one-child policy fix tempered
Health commission plays down potential for relaxation of mainland's baby limit after action plan feeds hopes that change may be coming
The health commission has attempted to tamp down expectations for a relaxation of the one-child policy, after a policy paper and media reports excited hopes for change.
National Health and Family Planning Commission spokesman Mao Qunan told the Beijing Morning Post that the commission was not necessarily referring to the number of children a couple can have when it alluded to policy changes in an action plan released on Tuesday.
It is incorrect to interpret 'improving the family-planning policy' as a renewed sign of relaxing the policy to allow for a second child
Among other public health initiatives, the action plan mentioned the issuance of "a revised scheme at an appropriate time to improve the country's family-planning policy".
"It is incorrect to interpret 'improving the family-planning policy' as a renewed sign of relaxing the policy to allow for a second child," Mao was quoted as saying. "Whether to allow couples to have two children … is a different matter from the family-planning policy revision."
Currently, the family-planning policy only allows urban couples who are both single children to have two children.
However, on Friday, the 21st Century Business Herald cited sources close to the commission as saying that authorities would relax the birth control policy by early next year and allow couples to have two children if either the mother or father is a single child.
And by 2015, the mainland would move to a two-child policy, the paper reported. Several media outlets followed up with similar reports.