More than 30 years ago, Communist China instituted its infamous one-child policy for married couples. As did many Western leftists, party leadership feared pure population growth, but they also feared losing control over a hugely populous country. China’s population as of 2010 had still grown to 1.34 billion, the largest in the world. Yet millions of unborn children have been killed since 1980 in forced abortions, and countless other babies were abandoned.

The only previous exceptions to the one-child policy were for some rural couples, or for couples that were both only children themselves. Now, President Xi Jinping has announced that couples can have two children if only one parent is an only child. The longstanding policy has left China with a growing labor shortage and an aging population. According to the document making the change, China’s new policy will “gradually adjust and improve family planning, promoting the development of [a] balanced population.” It’s a travesty that the policy was not scrapped altogether, though it’s so culturally engrained now that couples still may not take advantage of the shift.

Another change for China is that Xi says he will end forced “re-education” labor camps, a relic of Mao Tsetung’s reign of terror that have been used to punish millions – from religious activists (especially Christians) to human-rights advocates and those who would dare to object when mistreated by party bureaucrats. Some 190,000 at a time were cycled through the system for as long as four years, all without trial. Still, don’t expect persecution of Christians and other “enemies of the state” to stop. The Communists have other ways of causing suffering.