China rescind one child policy

(CNN) China will allow two children for every couple, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Thursday, a move that would effectively dismantle the remnants of the country's one-child policy that had been eased in recent years.

"To promote a balanced growth of population, China will continue to uphold the basic national policy of population control and improve its strategy on population development," Xinhua reported, citing a communique issued by the ruling Communist Party. "China will fully implement the policy of 'one couple, two children' in a proactive response to the issue of an aging population."

Xinhua said the proposal needs to be approved by China's top legislature before it can be enacted.

China, now a nation of more than 1.3 billion people, instituted a policy of one child per couple to control population growth in the 1970s.

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When its propaganda didn't work, local officials resorted to abortions, heavy fines and forced sterilization.

The decision to end the restriction followed a four-day strategy meeting of senior Communist Party officials at a Beijing hotel, CNN's David McKenzie said.

He has said the move was foreshadowed by a change in the propaganda: While old advertisements depicted parents doting on one child, he said, a recent commercial showed a boy begrudgingly sharing a toy with his younger sister.

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Relaxation of policy

China began relaxing the controversial policy in January 2014, allowing couples to have a second baby if the mother or father was an only child.

Parents sticking with 1 child as China eases rules 02:06

The move was hailed as a major liberalization of the three-decades-old restriction, but new figures released in January 2015 suggested that fewer people than expected were taking the plunge and expanding their family.

Nationwide, nearly 1 million couples eligible under the new rules had applied to have a second child, state media reported at the time. Health officials had said that the policy would lead to as many as 2 million new births when the policy change was first announced, and it was estimated that 11 million couples were eligible.

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