China China’s Communist Party has promised to loosen social controls including the decades-old “one-child” policy and phase out state-controlled prices in a broad range of industries as part of an aggressive push to shore up support for continued authoritarian rule. In a sweeping blueprint for reform published on Friday night in Beijing, the party said it would allow competitive market-based pricing in sectors including water, energy, transport and telecommunications. It also said the government would explore a system that guaranteed equal treatment of foreign investors in the world’s second-largest economy, as long as they did not invest in industries such as defence and other strategically important sectors. The document, entitled “a decision on major issues concerning comprehensive and […]