One Child Policy Fades in Guangzhou

Caixin: Easing Fear and One-Child Policy in Guangdong

In 2013, the rule was relaxed further to allow a second child if either father or mother was a single child. Local governments started implementing the policy last year.

The central government has for years been hinting at much more dramatic policy easing, noting that the nation's labor pool is rapidly aging. And some governments, at national and local levels, have for years officially prohibited the practice of denying hukous to babies whose parents violated the one-child policy.

...Even rule enforcers have welcomed the policy change in Guangdong. A police officer in Guangzhou said it's been "a great relief for us" since officers no longer have to confront angry parents. Police frequently found themselves challenged by parents who had violated family planning rules yet still demanded hukous.

These confrontations "embarrassed us" because there was "no legal support for refusing" a hukou to such parents, said the officer, who asked to remain anonymous.

Now, the officer said, parents can register for a child's hukou with merely a hospital birth certificate and their own identification documents. However, he noted, police still share hukou registration information with the family planning agency for the latter to track families' obedience to population rules.

Birth rates will still fall due to urbanization and modern ideology.