China Marks World Population DayThe State Family Planning Commission (SFPC) held a meeting in Beijing Monday to mark this year's World Population Day, which has the theme of "saving women's lives".China will launch a series of activities across the country to provide reproductive health care service for women, and give tests and treatment for women's common diseases, said Zhang Weiqing, president of the SFPC. To date, there are more than 600 pilot counties in China which have launched better reproductive health care service, and projects of reproductive health and family planning supported by the United Nations are also launched in 32 counties. Zhang said that family planning has helped free Chinese women from the burden of early marriage, early child bearing and a large number of children. They have got more time to involve themselves in social, economic, political and cultural activities, and their social status has been improved. He said that there are still a large number of poor women in rurual China, and problems such as gender discrimination and women abusing still exist. He noted that the country will strengthen its family planning policy and try to resolve problems related to population and women, and promote the social status of Chinese women. The world's population reached five billion on July 11 of 1987. The United Nations Population Fund then set the date as the World Population Day. |
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