BEIJING , Feb. 28 (UPI) -- China is acknowledging the country's growing gender gap by considering ending the one-child per family policy, a government official said Thursday.
The vice minister of China's National Population and Family Planning Commission, Zhao Baige, said the country is considering the implications of loosening the one-child law, The Guardian reported from Beijing.
"We want to have a transition from control to a slowdown (relaxation), incrementally. The attitude is to do the studies, to consider it responsibly," Baige said.
Changes in the law may be carried out on a region-by-region basis or through consideration of particular types of household situations, the newspaper said.
Officials are reportedly hesitant to formally suggest their desire to change the law because of a 30 million-baby birth increase in 1983 when citizens learned of such discussions.
China also is planning to promote the family values of having female babies to balance out the country's 118 male births for every 100 female births, the report said.
