The China Youth Daily reported on Monday that as of the
end of 2003, China’s population held at 1.3 billion, accounting for
21 percent of the world’s total. The country’s population now
features a low birth rate, low death rate and low growth rate.
However, birthrate imbalances between urban and rural areas and
between eastern and western areas have also emerged.
Today, the urban birthrate is lower than the rural birthrate.
The one-child policy is strictly implemented in cities, while in
China’s vast rural areas it is still common to see one couple with
two or more children.
“Although the birthrate is generally low, it continues to rise
in rural areas where medical care and education are hard to
guarantee to children,” the article said.
There is also a birthrate gap between the country’s
well-developed east and economically backward west. High-gear
economic growth and fast-paced lifestyles have changed urban
people’s feelings about raising children.
The average ages for marriage and pregnancy have climbed in the
economically developed cities and the “DINK (dual income no kids)
concept” has been accepted by increasing numbers of affluent
couples in those cities.
In metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai, birthrate growth has
gone into negative territory. In the western regions, however, many
people still feel that extending the family tradition through
raising children is essential. Violations of the family planning
policy are thus relatively common.
The China Youth Daily article commented that population
policies should focus on improvement of overall population quality
as well as on control of numbers. If rural birthrate growth
continues to outpace that of the cities, the economic development
gap between urban and rural areas will be aggravated and the
country’s comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development
program will be undermined.
At the same time, the country’s first “only child” generation
has come to the age of supporting their aging parents. This makes
the need for a sound, stable social security system even more
urgent.
Earlier this month at an academic forum held in Beijing,
National Population and Family Planning Commission Minister Zhang
Weiqing mentioned other population issues, such as the growing
male-female imbalance and population aging. He advised more
research on population development strategies to solve these and
other population issues.
(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2004)