China has agreed to allow couples to have a second child if one of the parents is an only child.
It is the first major easing in three decades of the restrictive national birth planning policy. Implemented around 1980, China's birth policy has limited most couples to one child, but has now allowed a second child if neither parent has siblings, or if the first born to a rural couple is a girl.
The standing committee of the National People's Congress has approved a resolution to formalise the Communist Party's decision.
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