China Leadership Pledges Expansion of Economic Freedoms

In the biggest expansion of economic freedoms since at least the 1990s, China’s leaders vowed to expand farmers’ land rights, loosen the one-child policy and encourage private investment in state businesses.

Couples can have two children if either parent is an only child, the Communist Party said in a statement yesterday fleshing out policies set at a four-day conclave this month. Farmers will get more rights over collectively owned rural land, while the household registration system that impedes internal migration will be scrapped in towns and small cities.