One Child Policy

Having a second kid in this economy is a daunting prospect, but it seems almost every set of parents I know are going for it – at least six of my closest friends and relatives are in the process, or have very recently had, “Lao Er” (老二).

And as if on cue, Beijing officials have recently announced that some Chinese families will be allowed to have a second child if the parents are both ‘only-children,’ the mother is younger than 28 and the second child is born within four years of the first. According to the China Daily, the changes come amidst “wide speculation” that the decades-old “one-child” policy would be relaxed, but some feel the revisions are not comprehensive enough, especially considering word of a growing labor shortage.

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