TIANJIN, China, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- China's Tianjin Municipality announced Friday it is easing its one-child policy, allowing couples to have a second child if either parent is an only child.
The ruling for the municipality in northeast China, with a population of 14.1 million, came at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tianjin People's Congress, said family planning commission Director Zhang Lijuan, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Friday.
Zhang predicted 10,000 to 20,000 more newborns annually, the majority in the urban area of the municipality.
Tianjin is the fourth city in China to relax the policy, in place for three decades, after Zhejing, Jiangxi and Arhui. The move is designed to raise fertility rates in the country and ease the financial burden of China's rapidly aging population, Xinhua said.
