BEIJING -- Unlike a recent decision made in Shanghai, Beijing will continue to keep the one child policy in place, a report in state-run media said Thursday.
Officials from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Population and Family Planning said Wednesday the policy restricting couples to one child will not be readjusted in the short term, the China Daily reports.
Family planners forbid Beijing residents from having a second child except under a combination of rare circumstances: both parents must themselves be only children, and their first child must be verified to have some type of disability.
China implemented its one-child policy 30 years ago as its population was approaching the 1 billion mark. The regulations are not evenly enforced, with urban residents being monitored more closely than those in the countryside.
Mu Guangzong, a researcher at the Population and Development Studies Center at Renmin (People's) University, was quoted saying there are nearly 100 million single child families in China.
