The government will stick to its family planning policy for the
foreseeable future despite some negative influences, a senior
official said yesterday.
Zhang Weiqing, head of the national population and family
planning commission, said the government will remain committed to
controlling population growth and improving its quality.
"The huge population has always been a major problem that
restricts the nation's economic and social development," Zhang said
yesterday at a symposium in Beijing to mark the 50th anniversary of
the New Population Theory put forward by Ma Yinchu, a demographer
and former president of Peking University.
"We must bear in mind that it is not easy for China to achieve
the present low birth rate," Zhang said.
"A smaller population is always more beneficial to the nation's
prosperity, environmental protection and construction of a
harmonious society."
He said many of the world's problems, such as deforestation,
global warming, acid rain and the disappearance of glaciers, are
all related to fast population growth.
"As a responsible country, China will adhere to the family
planning policy," Zhang said.
Zhai Zhenwu, a professor at Renmin University of China, said
family planning had also resulted in some bad consequences.
"It leads to fertility decline and accelerates population
aging," he said. "It is also partly responsible for the sex ratio
imbalance ."
However, he said every policy has its negative sides, and the
government is unlikely to make big changes to the present policy in
the near future.
The nation's total birth rate will be controlled at 1.8,
according to a national plan released in February.
Zhai said the nation had gradually eased control over the birth
rate.
While the family planning policy is popularly referred to as the
"one child policy," it in fact limits only 35.9 percent of the
population to having one child, he said.
Zhang Juwei, a population expert with the Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences, said China's economic progress is to a large
extent responsible for the nation's commitment to improving
population quality.
In 1949, 80 percent of China's population was illiterate. The
infant mortality rate surpassed 200 per thousand, and average life
expectancy was 35.
Today, China has almost eliminated illiteracy among young and
middle-aged people. Infant mortality rate stands at 25 per
thousand, and average life expectancy is 71.8.
However, Zhang Juwei said China still lags behind developed
countries.
For example, average schooling for work-age people is four years
less than in developed countries.
(China Daily July 4, 2007)