From a Number-Centered Officer to a Quality of Care Advocator: A Personal Story

My colleagues have presented at the Conference the Chinese initiative to reorient its family planning program from a demographic driven to a quality of care approach since 1995. I was responsible on behalf of China's State Family planning Commission (SFPC) for the quality of care experiment among the 11 pilot counties/districts until my retirement in 1999. While I devoted myself in the late 1990s to advocate the concept of the quality of care in China, I was in fact the person very much e…     

Population and Family Planning Fund Included in Government Budget

China will further the reform of the population andfamily planning financial investment system byincluding the population and family planning fund in the government budget, said Zhang Weiqing,Minister of the National Population and FamilyPlanning Commission, at a July teleconference onRewarding Outstanding Organizations andIndividuals in the Anti-SARS War. As one of its ten objectives for the year 2003, theNPFPC is working closely with the financialdepartment to draft a concrete pla…     

Work Hard and Forge Ahead to Further Promote the Prosperity of Population Science——Summary of the 8th Congress & 2014 Annual Meeting of China Population Association

正On 1and 2 September 2014,China Population Association grandly convened the 8th Congress2014Annual Meeting of China Population Association in Beijing and smoothly completed the re-election of its executive council.The annual meeting of China Population Association has been a great communication event held once every year for the academia.In regard to the new conditions,patterns and features of China’s population,economic and social development,demographers     

Expert Proposes Five Strategies to Check Spread of Disease

China needs to take a systematic approach and make out a series of effective measures to effectively prevent AIDS from spreading on a massive scale, according to Zeng Yi, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of the China Research Institute of Preventive Science. Experts estimate that the actual number of HIV/AIDS carriers in China had exceeded 600,000 by the end of 2000. Zeng, a celebrated virologist in China, proposed the following strategies …     

Poor Mothers and Babies Get Help

The China Foundation for Poverty Alleviationrecently launched a project to ensure the well-being of mothers and babies in the country's poor regions. Siemens, one of the world's leading multinationalcompanies, has actively joined in the foundation'swork to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates, especially in the remote villages of western China. The company will donate its income from selling its latest model refrigerators in some major cities,including Beijing, for this month. "…     

How Wide Is the Income Gap in China?

Thanks to the introduction of the reform and opening up policy, China has achieved rapid economic development and recorded a significant rise in the income level of its urban and rural residents as a whole. However, the level of income varies from industry to industry, from rural to urban areas, and from region to region, and the gap is widening. Estimates show that the Gini coefficient (an economic indicator measuring disparities in personal income) in China was 0.424 in 1996, 0.456 in 1998,…     

Sustainability Key for Future Development in China

Sustainable development with Chinese characteristics is key for China抯 future development. This is a consensus reached by environmentalists both at home and abroad who attended the fifth session of the second meeting of the Committee on International Cooperation in Environment and Development in China held in October, 2001 in Beijing. Since the establishment of the committee in 1992, China has made great efforts to improve its policies related to sustainable development. Environment…     

The Analysis on the Potential and Trend of the Non-agricultural Transfer of Chinese Rural Labor in the Following 20 Years

The non-agriculturalization of rural labors,which has caught much research attention,is an ecessary phenomenonin the process of urbanization. However, conflicts exsitson some basic issues due to the disagreement on the concept and data of the rural non-agricultural labor force,and there is alack of systemic and quantitative research on the potentials of rural labor’s non-agricultural transfer in the future. By predicting the changing trend of future rural labor force, the demand for agricultural labors, and the trend of rural labor’s non-agricultural transfer, this paper estimated the potentials of Chinese rural labor’s non-agricultural transfer in the next 20 years. It found that the surplus labors in the countryside will decrease annually, and its total number will range between 100 million and 250 million by 2030. Although there is still some increase potential of the stock of rural labor’s non-agricultural transfer in the near future, its increase will approach to zero in 10 years, and rural transferrable surplus labor will also approach to zero in about 5 to 10 years.     

Next Two Decades Crucial for China to Tackle Population Aging

As China’s population officially reached 1.3 billion on January 6, 2005, the issue of population aging is drawing renewed attention in China. Structurally, China became an aging society in 2000. According to UN estimates, India will surpass China by 2040 as the most populous country in the world; however, China will remain as the country home to the largest aging population in the world. Most of the population challenges confronting China today have to do with population aging. Currentl…     

Empirical Analysis on Impacts of Migration with and without Hukou Change on China's Provincial Economy

Based on the preliminary investigation of spatial and temporal patterns of migration with and without hukou (i.e.,the household registration system ) change and drawing on panel data in the past ten years,this paper uses random coefficient models to examine the impacts of migration on provincial economy growth in China.Analytical results show that:(a) migrations with hukou change across regions have been relatively stable,while migration without hukou change has increased rapidly and continuously since2000with extreme disparities across provinces;(b) the migration and mobility of the population is a Pareto improvement for China’s overall economy;(c)hukou in developed areas plays a role as the hourglass;(d) for most central provinces and some western provinces with large-size of outmigration, the negative impact of the loss of human capital due to large-scale out-migration on local economy began to come out;although outmigration has in general a positive mi pact,its contribution to local economic development is not as obvious as we expected.     

China Faces Challenges In Old-Age Support

China will face challenges to old-age supportfor urban only-child families, rural residentsand those who are held up by senile dementia,according to a seminar on population aging held inBeijing in October 1999. Middle-aged experts andresearchers attended the seminar, the first of its kindever held in China.Urban only-child familiesParents of the first generation of only-children arebecoming old. Adult only-children in urban areas findthemselves oil the horns of a dilemma: careerprospects on …     

China, US Vow to Collaborate in Anti-AIDS Fight

Chinese and US officials and experts pledged to work more closely to boost China's anti-AIDS efforts with the country being warned its HIV/AIDS epidemic situation is critical. At a high-profile conference in Beijing on November 1, they suggested China and the United States increase exchanges and cooperation in scientific research and personnel training to help address the issue of AIDS in China, which was potentially important for the global fight against the disease. "China is at…     

Reproductive Health Becomes a Promising Industry

In mid-July, China held its first family planning and reproductive health new technology and new product exposition in Beijing, on the occasion of the first World Population Day in the new millennium. Tens of thousands of visitors both industry people and ordinary citizens flocked to the exhibition hall, accompanied by a major media blitz proclaiming the coming of age of a new industry, reproductive health. China Transformed Just a few years ago, few people in China realized that sexual…     

Sex-Selective Abortions To Be Outlawed

China is to outlaw the selective abortion of female fetuses to correct an imbalance in the ratio of boys to girls that has grown since the family planning policy was introduced more than 20 years ago. State media reported that government figures show 119 boys are born in the world's most populous country for every 100 girls, but Beijing has set a goal of reversing the imbalance by 2010. China implemented the family planning policy in the early 1980s to curb its massive population -- which off…     

Income Gap Continues to Widen over Next Five Years

China is facing a dilemma in its transition from a traditional, egalitarian planned economy to a competitive market economy: on the one hand, to motivate productivity and retain capable workers, it has to offer competitive salaries to capable employees; on the other hand, disparities in education, geographical location and levels of economic development have given rise to widening income gaps between different groups of its citizens. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security recently announc…     

Publicity and Education on Prevention of AIDS: A Baseline Survey

As one of the leading killers in the world, AIDS has taken its toll in China, too. Experts estimate that the number of HIV carriers in China has exceeded 600,000 and the situation is aggravating due to a lack of knowledge and information among the general public on prevention and treatment of the deadly disease. In view of this, in December 2000, the State Family Planning Commission of China (SFPC), commissioned by UNECEF, Ford Foundation and UNAIDS, conducted a baseline survey …     

The Economic Pressure of Population Ageing in China and Its Regulation

By adopting the AECI Index Method proposed by the author and using method of population simulation,this paper analyzes quantitatively the trend,intensity and regulation of the economic pressure of population ageing in China,and compares China with other countries.It draws the following conclusions:(1) China will face great economic pressure due to population ageing in the first half of this century.According to the medium projection,the pressure will increase most rapidly during the period from the middle of 2020s to the end of 2030s,and reach its peak around 2040 when the intensity of the pressure may quadruple that in 2010.(2) The great economic pressure of population ageing may remarkably reduce China’s development momentum.(3) To ease the pressure,we should rely mainly on economic measures,supplemented by population control measures.(4) To gradually liberalize the prevailing birth control policy on the premise of sticking to the state policy of family planning is a rational approach to regulate the economic pressure of population ageing in China.On the one hand,this can ease the possible economic pressure of ageing in the future,and on the other hand,it can control the pressure of population size within an endurable limit.     

Pension Funds Needed

China will confront a huge shortfall in pensionfunds that could undermine its pension systemwhen its elderly population peaks in 30 years,according to an international seminar held in Beijing inApril 2000.The aging population (60 and over) is expected toaccount for 22% of the country's total in 2030, theWorld Bank predicts. This trend means thegovernment would have to pay a sum equal to as muchas 40% of the state's total payroll to pensioners,seminar participants said."It is an unbearable bu…     

统筹解决人口问题促进人口长期均衡发展(英文)

On September 25, 1980, the CPC Central Committee issued ＂An Open Letter to All CPC Members and All Members of China Communist Youth League on the issue of Controlling Population Growth＂. The ＂Open Letter＂ is a milestone in the history of population and family planning in China, as it encouraged that one couple had one child in the 30 to 40 years that followed. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the ＂Open Letter＂,     

China Faces Nine Obstacles in Population Development

With drastic changes in both the international and domestic environment for population and family planning development, China faces nine major challenges in its efforts to further its population and family planning program, said Zhang Weiqing, Minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, in an article in Qiushi (seeking truth), a journal published by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The challenges include: 1. Unstable low fertility level. Th…