Controversial when it began a generation ago, China's one-child policy is stirring yet more contention. Until recently most discussion in China has been confined to academic demographers. Many of them argue that the policy did little good when it began and is increasingly damaging now that the fertility rate is below the replacement level and China's population structure-the balance between young, middle-aged and old-is becoming so skewed. This month the debate became political. A provincial official went public with a request to let Guangdong-China's most populous province, with 104m people-loosen the rules. Speaking to newspapers, Zhang Feng, director of Guangdong's Population and Family Planning Commission, said he had applied for "approval to be the leader in the country in the relaxation of the family-planning policy".
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