China and the “one child policy”

A friend sent this for everyone’s attention from Reuters via NYT:

July 24, 2009
Shanghai Promoting 2-Child Families
By REUTERS

Filed at 4:52 a.m. ET

BEIJING, July 24 (Reuters) – Shanghai is urging eligible couples to have two children as worries about the looming liability of an ageing population outweighs concerns about over-stretched resources, a city official said on Friday.

The policy marks the first time in decades Chinese officials have actively encouraged procreation.

China’s famous "one child" policy is actually less rigorous than its name suggests, and allows urban parents to have two offspring if they are both only children. Rural couples are allowed a second child if their first is a girl.

There is more.

Go read and comment here.

My understanding is that in the rural areas the so-called one-child policy was already somewhat attenuated.  Also, in other parts of China there has been a black market slave trade in women because of the doomed policy.