China Relaxes One-Child Policy; Abolishes Prison Labor Camps

President Xi Jinping of China is bringing about economic, legal, and social reform in a way not seen for years.

“This is the most market-oriented and the most comprehensive package of reforms in two decades,” said Cheng Li of the Brookings Institution in Washington, highlighting “concrete efforts to promote judicial independence” and abolish a labor camp system which has long been a symbol of arbitrary and politically motivated punishment.

The policy measures, announced after a meeting of top party officials, promised to address some of the roots of China’s growing unrest by giving peasant farmers a greater share of the benefits of the nation’s economic boom, with more rights to sell land and settle permanently in the cities. But there is to be no relaxation of the Communist Party’s overarching control of China, and efforts to stamp out dissent and “manage” the Internet could even be intensified.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.