China to loosen one-child policy and abolish labour camps

Ruling Communist party announces that couples can have two children if one parent is an only child

theguardian.com, Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing, Friday 15 November 2013

A baby is carried in a basket on her mother's back on a street in Beijing,
China. Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

China has pledged to loosen its one-child policy and end a controversial "re-education through labour" programme, state media reported on Friday, days after the conclusion of a meeting of top Communist party leaders in Beijing.

Under the new policy, couples in which one member is an only child will be allowed to have two children, according to China's state newswire Xinhua; currently, couples can only have two children if both members are only children themselves.

China will also end its controversial re-education through labour programme, a system of administrative, extralegal detentions which can send people to prison for four years without conviction. Activists and human rights groups have long criticised the system as giving authorities the power to detain critics and opponents without due process. Details of the two policy shifts and timelines for their implementation are still unclear.

The reforms were decided at the Communist party's third plenum, four days of closed-door meetings among about 400 top party leaders, intended to design a blueprint for China's development over the coming decade.

The controversial one-child policy, introduced in 1979 to keep population growth in check, has been gradually relaxed in recent years. While most Chinese people are still only allowed to have one child, some groups, including ethnic minorities and disabled people, are allowed to have two.

The policy change "should lead to a significant reduction in the abuse of human rights, in terms of forced termination", said Steve Tsang, a professor of Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham. "This is still a very, very, very big issue, and it is one of the most regular abuses of human rights that happens in China."

Tsang said China's unwillingness to abolish the policy altogether suggested it was more concerned with the economic, rather than human cost. "Until now, the growth of the Chinese economy has been propelled by a demographic surplus, and that has been turning into a demographic deficit," he said.

Xinhua said the re-education through labour system would be abolished "as part of efforts to improve human rights and judicial practices".

The Communist party established its re-education through labour system in 1957 under Mao Zedong, to penalise "counter-revolutionaries" outside of judicial channels. But more recently, local police use it to extralegally detain petty criminals, such as thieves and prostitutes, as well as political dissidents and members of banned religious groups. Sentences may last up to four years, and while there are no official statistics, as many as 2 million people could be in detention at any given time.

Other, less dramatic reforms emerged during the plenum, including promises to explore ways of setting up an intellectual property court, reduce the number of crimes subject to the death penalty "step by step", and "build a more impartial, sustainable social security system, with an improved housing guarantee mechanism".

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  3 - Longer Life is Going to Happen, But…

Here is one that is a review. We keep bringing it up because Humans don't believe it. If you're going to start living longer, there are those who are frightened that there will be overpopulation. You've seen the way it is so far, and the geometric progression of mathematics is absolute and you cannot change it. So if you look at the population of the earth and how much it has shifted in the last two decades, it's frightening to you. What would change that progression?

The answer is simple, but requires a change in thinking. The answer is a civilization on the planet who understands a new survival scenario. Instead of a basic population who has been told to have a lot of children to enhance the race [old survival], they begin to understand the logic of a new scenario. The Akashic wisdom of the ages will start to creep in with a basic survival scenario shift. Not every single woman will look at herself and say, "The clock is ticking," but instead can say, "I have been a mother 14 times in a row. I'm going to sit this one out." It's a woman who understands that there is no loss or guilt in this, and actually feels that the new survival attribute is to keep the family small or not at all! Also, as we have said before, even those who are currently ignorant of population control will figure out what is causing babies to be born [Kryon joke].

Part of the new Africa will be education and healing, and eventually a zero population growth, just like some of the first-world nations currently have. Those who are currently tied to a spiritual doctrine will actually have that doctrine changed (watch for it) regarding Human birth. Then they will be able to make free choice that is appropriate even within the establishment of organized religion. You see, things are going to change where common sense will say, "Perhaps it would help the planet if I didn't have children or perhaps just one child." Then the obvious, "Perhaps I can exist economically better and be wiser with just one. It will help the one!" Watch for these changes. For those of you who are steeped in the tradition of the doctrines and would say that sounds outrageously impossible, I give you the new coming pope [Kryon smile]. For those of you who feel that uncontrolled procreation is inevitable, I encourage you to see statistics you haven't seen or didn't care to look at yet about what first-world countries have already accomplished on their own, without any mandates. It's already happening. That was number three.….”