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 | Wednesday, April 12, 2000, updated at 10:24(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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China Striving to Keep Birth Rate LowChina intends to make every effort to maintain the low birth rate achieved after 30 years of family planning policy, according to an article in the 7th issue of China Comment which is published in Beijing on April 10."The birth rate and natural growth rate of China's population have been cut by half and by about two-thirds, respectively, since 1970, but the country is still under pressure from a large growing population," the periodical, formerly called Fortnightly Review, a leading bi-weekly periodical on current affairs, quoted Zhang Weiqing, head of the State Family Planning Commission, as saying. Zhang said the average fertility rate among women has been kept under two since for a decade, which means the Chinese population is no longer booming, but if there are any mistakes in population policy, or negative effects brought about by the international community, the birth rate in China might return to a high level. According to a decision on population and family planning issued by China's Central authorities last month, the country plans to keep its population under 1.4 billion by the end of 2010, with an average birth rate of 1.5 percent. The quality of the Chinese population will also be greatly improved during this period, and a comprehensive system of family planning laws, regulations, and strict management will then be in place, the decision said. "It is actually a very arduous task," said Zhang, "because problems such as the increasing transient population and under- employed people, as well as early marriages and child-bearing remain obstacles to efficient family planning." In some remote areas of western China, local residents still desire more children than state policy requires, and this has added heavy burdens to their impoverished lives. By the mid-21st Century, the number of women of child-bearing age in China will reach 300 million, which is almost on a par with the figure for the 1990s. The Chinese population will increase by 10 million a year over the next few years, and the number of people of working age as well as the number of elderly people will reach their peaks. Zhang pointed out that in the next decade it will be vital for the country to maintain a low birth rate. However, China is practicing a more flexible family planning policy in rural areas and in areas where ethnic minorities live in large numbers, he said. In Yunnan, Qinghai, and three other provinces and autonomous regions, rural couples are allowed to have two children. In Henan, Anhui, and 17 other provinces and autonomous regions, rural couples who have only a daughter are allowed to have a second child. But in Beijing, Jiangsu Province, and other developed areas, rural residents have to follow the one-child policy just as urban residents. In almost all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, a couple is allowed to have two children if they are both only children. Some areas even provide pension insurance for rural parents in one-child and two-daughter families. For example, Guangdong Province provides such insurance for 67 percent of the one-child and two-daughter families. Zhang concluded that the Chinese population will stop growing in the middle of the 21st Century. But China will still face the great challenge of feeding and providing jobs for a population of 1.6 billion.
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