The World - News from Aug. 4, 1988

Rural families in China who already have a daughter but still want a son will be allowed to try again under a new government policy. Li Yong, a spokesman for the State Birth Control Commission, said the move was prompted by the peasants’ refusal to bow to the official “one-family, one-child” policy. Many of China’s peasants cling to the belief that boys are economically more productive than girls, he said, and Chinese superstitions favor male children. The new policy will not apply to city dwellers. About 80% of China’s 1.07 billion people are peasants.