Two-child policy too little, too late for China

WHEN Chinese leaders convene this week for a four-day meeting on the future of the country's economy, the biggest news might have to do with babies. According to reports in Chinese media, the government may be ready to relax the notorious "one-child" policy, in existence since the late 1970s, and allow Chinese parents to have two children.

This might seem like a rare victory for human rights in a country where reproductive freedoms have long been restricted, and it is. But the government has a more practica…