http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/24/world/asia/china-two-child-policy-yichang.html 2016-09-23 13:56:30 Chinese City Urges Comrades to Do Their Part and Reproduce The appeal by Yichang officials, coming so soon after the end of the national one-child policy, was met with howls of amazement and resentment on social media. === BEIJING — For 36 years the Chinese state nearly turned out the lights on childbearing, ordering most families to have just one child and to focus instead on economic growth. An authoritative The program was effective. In the city of So this week Yichang officials snapped on the lights again, issuing another Here are excerpts: Howls of amazement and resentment followed in Chinese news outlets and on social media. Here are some reactions attached to one of many articles circulating online, Several days after it was published on the Yichang government website with the red stamps of a clutch of departments indicating wide local support, the letter The public letter was daring, said Coupled with the scale of the reaction, Dr. Yi said he was nicknaming the letter the “ “I’m not surprised that Yichang is trying to promote births,” Dr. Yi said in an interview. “But I’m surprised at how they did it. Because unlike the northeast and Shanghai, which have The fact that it was removed appears to indicate it had not been approved, he said. A person answering the telephone at the Yichang Family Planning and Health Department on Friday declined to comment, referring a caller to the Hubei provincial government in Wuhan. Suggesting why the topic was sensitive, the letter said of the depressed fertility rate: It listed as hazards the effects of very low birthrates on labor, production, the fabric of the family and old-age care. Another, more mildly worded Dr. Yi predicted that the old-style exhortation would not work. For decades, China’s economy has developed to cater mostly to one-child families. Housing, education and other costs are often high, based partly on the expectation a couple will only have one child. What is needed now, Dr. Yi said, is “more wealth distribution, old-age care, lower housing costs, lower population density in cities, more social services for children and lower child-raising costs” before a significant number of families will be prepared to take on the burden of a second child.