China to Abolish Labor Camps, Loosen One-Child Policy
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Date: 11/15/2013 6:44:42 AM
Sender: VOA
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A Paramilitary soldier stands guard behind a chain as the giant portrait of the late Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong is seen in the background in Tiananmen square, Nov. 12, 2013.
China has announced a series of wide-ranging reforms, including relaxing its decades-old one-child policy and abolishing its re-education through labor camps.
The moves, announced Friday by the official Xinhua news agency, are an expanded summary of decisions from a key Communist Party meeting that ended earlier this week.
Under the new rules, Chinese couples will now be able to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. Currently, only very few couples are able to have more than one child. Rights groups have long criticized the one-child policy, which has been in some cases carried out with forced abortions and sterilization campaigns.
Another area of criticism has been China＇s notorious re-education through labor system, which Xinhua says will now end. Under the system, police can sentence alleged offenders to years in camps without a trial. It is unclear what will replace the labor camps, which are estimated to hold as many as 190,000 people.
The report added that Beijing will also reduce "step by step" the number of crimes subject to the death penalty. China does not release its capital punishment figures, but rights groups such as Amnesty International believe China in recent years has executed more people than the rest of the world combined.
Xinhua said the reforms were part of efforts to improve human rights and judicial practices.
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