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Expert: China's one-child policy needs to be changed

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-11-04 16:39

An expert on population control said China should encourage people to have more than one child in the future, CNS reported.

Cai Feng, the head of the Chinese Academy of Social Science's Population and Labor Economics Research Institute was speaking at a forum hosted by the academy on Tuesday in Beijing.

Cai, who is also in the National People's Congress, said a family planning policy doesn't have to mean a one-child policy.

"The only-child generation has already made their contribution to population control in China," he said, "China should make its family planning policy based on long-term benefits."

Many regions of China are already carrying out policies where if both halves of a couple are only children, they may have a second child. What's more, in some places, even if one half of a couple is only child, the couple are considered to be allowed to have a second child.