According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"China's leaders agreed to loosen the nation's one-child policy and to give market forces a greater role in the world's No. 2 economy, according to new details of a blueprint for reform released on Friday".
"While a preliminary summary of the meeting released on Tuesday was vague, the more-detailed document released on Friday sketches an ambitious reform program designed to address problems that China faces: maturing growth, rising worries about a wide wealth gap and endemic pollution, and increasingly vocal criticism of Beijing's handling of a number of social issues.
"While a preliminary summary of the meeting released on Tuesday was vague, the more-detailed document released on Friday sketches an ambitious reform program designed to address problems that China faces: maturing growth, rising worries about a wide wealth gap and endemic pollution, and increasingly vocal criticism of Beijing's handling of a number of social issues.
"More attention also needs to be paid to employment, income levels, social security and people's health," the document said.
The test now for Mr. Xi and China's leaders will be how to implement many of its goals, including whether they will be introduced in coming months or will be introduced more gradually. The leadership is likely to face resistance ranging from state enterprises and the bureaucracies that oversee them to local governments, which have been frustrated by attempts at piecemeal reforms in recent years. A special leadership committee to oversee reform, which was announced previously, is supposed to address possible resistance, though the document provides few details on how it will do so.
The document said China would significantly ease its one-child policy, allowing couples to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. Currently, Chinese couples are restricted to one child except under some circumstances, such as rural dwellers, pilot programs in a number of areas and among ethnic minorities.
On economic matters, Chinese leaders said they would establish a system for insuring bank deposits, prepare a mechanism for financial bankruptcy and ease controls on prices for energy, water, telecommunications and other services.
It also said it would ease curbs on offshore securities investments and mergers and acquisitions, without providing details.
China also plans to abolish a controversial labor camp system in what Xinhua described as "part of efforts to improve human rights and judicial procedures".
