【明報專訊】A PIECE OF NEWS last week has grabbed the attention of local and overseas media. China will, reportedly, scrap all limits on the number of children a family can have by the end of this year at the earliest, spelling the end of the country's four-decade old birth control policy. Although the authorities have yet to confirm the report, adjustments to the mainland's birth policy are afoot quietly. In 2015, couples became allowed to have a second child. Last October, Ming Pao was the first to report that the nearly forty-year -old family planning policy might be abolished this year. In March, the National Health and Family Planning Commission was renamed the National Health Commission as part of the institutional reform of the State Council. Those were all signals that a complete removal of birth restrictions might not be far away.