Newsademic British English edition 260

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Xinhua is a news agency in China. 
The Chinese government controls 
what news this agency broadcasts. 
On 29th October Xinhua reported 
that the government had decided to 
end China’s one-child policy. All 
couples will now be allowed to have 
two children.
The one-child policy began 35 
years ago. Then, China’s huge pop­
ulation was growing very quickly. 
The country was poor and most peo­
ple lived on small farms. Many were 
worried that there would not be 
enough food for an ever-increasing 
population. The rule meant that each 
family could have only one child.
If parents had more than one 
child, they had to pay a large fine. 
Government officials could visit a 
parent’s workplace and persuade the 
company to take away their job. A 
woman who already had one child 
was often forced to have an abor­
tion if she became pregnant. Since 
the one-child policy began, many 
millions of abortions have been per­
formed in China every year.
Traditionally, 
many 
Chinese 
couples still prefer to have a son. 
If a woman knows she is expecting 
a girl, she is more likely to agree 
to an abortion. Therefore, over the 
last 35 years, more boys than girls 
have been born in China. This has 
created a ‘gender imbalance’. So 
there are many more Chinese men 
under 35 years of age than there 
are women.
In more recent years, the one- 
child policy was altered. The one- 
child rule only applied to families 
living in cities. Couples in the coun­
tryside could have two children, if 
their first child was a girl. Then, in 
2013 there was another rule change. 
If either the husband or wife was a 
single child, then, as a couple, they 
could have two children.
Officials claim the one-child 
policy has prevented at least 400 
million births over the last 35 years. 
Thirty-five years ago China was not 
as wealthy as it is today. The country 
has become one o f the w orld’s fast­
est-developing nations. Now, China 
has the second largest economy in 
the world. The USA is the biggest 
economy. However, many experts 
predict that China’s economy will 
overtake the USA’s within the next 
few years.
One child p e r fa m ily po licy p o s te r from 1980
Chinese officials insist that the 
one-child policy helps to explain 
the country’s rapid economic de­
velopment. Without the policy, they 
claim, there would have been food 
shortages and not enough jobs for 
everyone. However, others disa­
gree. These people believe that the 
one-child policy has caused difficul­
ties for the country.
During the last 35 years, most 
children have grown up without sis­
ters or brothers. Some people w on­
der if this might cause social prob­
lems in future. In the past, several

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