China to Conduct Census in 2000

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China''''s GDP Expected to Double in 2020

China will double its GDP, on the basis of 2000, in 2020 and achieve industrialization, according to anoted researcher. The nation抯overall power will rank among the top three in the world, meeting the requirements for sustainable development, accordingto a report released by a team of scientists from theChinese Academy of Sciences on sustainable development. Niu Wenyuan, head of the team, said by 2020 theurbanization rate of China will be raised from 36% at present to over 55%, capable of…     

Forest Cover to Double in 50 Years

China's forested area is expected to double by themiddle of this century.The State Forestry Administration (SFA) has unveiledan afforestation program aimed at improving thecountry's overall ecological environment.The newly-drafted blueprint outlines four projects tobe carried out in four regions: the environmentallyfragile upper reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers;arid northern areas and the state-run key forest zones inthe northeast and east China.Wang Zhibao, director of the SFA, s…     

Four Population Peaks to Appear in Near Future

China will reach four peaks sometime in the near future in its total population, working-age population, elderly population and floating population, according to SFPC Minister Zhang Weiqing. Zhang made this remark at the second session of the fifth national congress of the China Family Planning Association held this December in Beijing. A number of constraints hinder the furtherdevelopment of China抯 population and family planning cause. These include: a low but unstable fertility …     

What's happening to marriage in East Asia?

This article presents an overview of marriage patterns in East Asia. Globally, marriage patterns are changing. In East Asia, cultural patterns are slowing the changes in attitude toward marriage that are occurring in the West. There are implications of changing attitudes for government planners. This issue of Asia-Pacific Population and Policy is based on a series of studies of marriage and family life in Japan, South Korea, and the US. Data were obtained from the 1994 Japan Survey on Work and Family Life; the 1994 South Korea Survey on the Quality of Life; and the 1992-94 US Survey of Families and Households. Findings are reported on marriage age, attitudes toward marriage, attitudes post-marriage, and work patterns during marriage. Both Japan and South Korea have below replacement level fertility and traditional gendered division of labor in the household. In South Korea, women who work 35 or more hours/week spend 31 hours/week on housework, while husbands contribute 14 hours/week. In the US, the equivalent figures were 26 hours for full-time working wives and 9 hours for husbands. In Japan, wives spent 30 hours on housework, while husbands spent 3 hours. Full-time work outside the home involved 57% of married women in Japan, 27% in South Korea, and 66% in the US. Notwithstanding the double burden, women in South Korea and Japan experience pressure from competitive school systems for their children. After-school academic programs are expensive. The trend is for greater reluctance to marry. Replacement level fertility is unlikely unless full equality is achieved in the family.     

Hong Kong Population to Increase in Three Decades

The population in China抯 Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will increase from 6.72 million at present to 8.72 million in 2032 at an annual growth rate of 0.9%, according to Hong Kong SAR statistics. Ninety-three percent of the net increase of two million will be new immigrants and 7% natural growth. Of the new immigrants, 82% will come from mainland China. At present, 150 mainlanders come to Hong Kong for settlement every day, or 54,000 a year. About 40% of them are children. Th…     

Anti-AIDS Foundation Launched in Beijing to Aid Youths

An RMB1 million fund was launched on August 28, 2002 to help prevent AIDS proliferation among Chinese youths. This was the first attempt by a non-governmental organization in China to mobilize non-governmental resources to take part in AIDS prevention. The fund, known as Charity Fund for the Prevention of AIDS among Chinese Youths, was jointly founded and launched by the China Fund for Youth Development, the China Youth Daily and Guilin Latex Factory to launch publicity and educa…     

Health Services Grow to Meet Increase in Teen Pregnancies

The growing number of pegnant Chinese teenagers--once shunned because of the shame they brought totheir families -- are finding new avenues forprofessional and safe help and advice.     

HIV Carriers to Exceed 10 Million in 10 Years

Latest statistics released by the Ministry of Health shows that by the end of September 2001, there were 20,711 cases of HIV carriers reported in China. Of those, 741 were AIDS patients and 397 had already died. The first AIDS case in China was reported in 1985 and so far it has been reported in all the provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions). AIDS is spreading fast in China, especially among people on dope, due to a weak awareness of the deadly disease among …     

China and ROK to Strengthen Cooperation in Environmental Issues

The environment ministers of China and the Republicof Korea have agreed to strengthen bilateralcooperation in tackling regional environmentalproblems while promoting the development ofrelevant industries.     

An Integrated Approach to Family Planning in Rural China

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Why do women continue to smoke in pregnancy?

Smoking during pregnancy not only impacts on the woman's health but that of her unborn child. Women most likely to continue smoking throughout pregnancy are generally of lower age, socio-economic status, level of education and occupational status. Women who continue to smoke during pregnancy often feel criticized by society. They feel guilt and personal conflict at not quitting. Lack of long-term positive outcomes from anti-smoking campaigns may result form ignorance surrounding socio-economically disadvantaged women's life circumstances. Current interventions often ignore the emotional and psychological stressors associated with pregnancy; they do not address the altered physiological processes that occur during pregnancy. A review of the literature pertaining to women who smoke throughout pregnancy is presented. Women want an individualised approach to smoking cessation advice, with health care workers having knowledge of the woman's social situation and viewpoints. This paper reveals that the woman's perspective has largely been ignored. Indeed health care professionals have attempted to manipulate women to stop smoking rather than engage in mutually respectful dialogue.     

Childless or Childfree? Paths to Voluntary Childlessness in Italy

This article investigates childlessness in Italy. Trends in childlessness are presented and compared with trends elsewhere in Europe. Different paths to childlessness are outlined, using data from a survey carried out among childless women aged 40‐44 in five Italian cities in 2002. Individual characteristics of the childless and reasons for childlessness are investigated. As many as one‐third of the interviewees who live with a partner and do not suffer from any physical impediment are voluntarily childless. These women, in contrast to mothers, appear to be less religious and to have partners who are less religious; they tend to come from smaller families; to have been in a nonmarital cohabitation at least once in life; to have entered their first union later; and to have had, in the initial period of their union, temporary work and flexible work schedules and limited leisure time. In other cases, childlessness is the unintended outcome of a decision to delay having a child or the result of adverse external circumstances, particularly dissolution of partnership.     

Ethnic Population: A Problem to Reckon with in the Drive to Open up the West

The strategic decision to develop the vast regionof western China is a blessing to people livingin that part of the country. Predictably,however, many obstacles will have to be overcomefor that objective to realize. The population issue,particularly with regard to the ethnic population,stands out as one to be reckoned with seriously.Currently, the ethnic population in the westernprovinces - Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan. TibetShaanxi. Gansu, Qinghai. Ningxia, Xinjiang, InnerMongolia and Guangx…     

Attitudes to Chronic Poverty in the ‘Global Village’

The paper explores attitudes to chronic poverty in a cross-section of developed and developing countries contributing data to the World Values Survey Wave Three (1994–1998). The analysis finds a consistent belief among a majority of respondents that poverty is persistent. The paper also explores the factors influencing public attitudes to chronic poverty, and finds that interests, position, knowledge, and shared values relating to social justice, are important.     

Huge Money to Be Invested in Pollution Control on Huaihe

East China's Jiangsu Province will invest RMB7.91 billion (US$953 million) by the end of 2005 on 82pollution-control projects on the Huaihe River,according to a work conference held on August 4 on controlling pollution in the river valley areas. The projects are expected to ensure that water quality at the artery and main branches of the river isimproved to the standards set by the government. The projects cover treatment of sewage, garbage and industrial pollutants and pollution cause…     

Determined to stop? Longitudinal analysis of the desire to have no more children in rural Mozambique

Classic demographic theories conceptualize desired family size as a fixed goal that guides fertility intentions over the childbearing years. However, a growing body of research shows that fertility plans, even nominally long-term plans for completed childbearing, change in response to short-term conditions. Because of data limitations, much of this research has focused on low-fertility contexts, but short-term conditions are likely to be even more important in high-fertility contexts. This paper uses three waves of survey data collected in rural Mozambique to study predictors of the desire to stop childbearing in a context of relatively high fertility and high individual and social instability. We use fixed effects models to assess how women’s desires to stop childbearing are shaped by demographic factors, household economic conditions, and health status, controlling for constant individual characteristics. Results provide evidence that fertility desires both reflect stable underlying goals and evolve in response to individual and social circumstances.     

Have We Put an End to Social Promotion? Changes in School Progress among Children Aged 6 to 17 from 1972 to 2005

We examine trends over time in the proportion of children below the modal grade for their age (BMG), a proxy for grade retention, and in the effects of its demographic and socioeconomic correlates. We estimate a logistic regression model with partial constraints predicting BMG using the annual October school enrollment supplements of the Current Population Survey. This model identifies systematic variation in the effects of social background across age and time from 1972 to 2005. While the effects of socioeconomic background variables on progress through school have become increasingly powerful as children grow older, that typical pattern has been attenuated across the past three decades by a steady secular decline in the influence of those variables across all ages. A great deal of concern has been expressed about rising levels of economic and social inequality in the United States since the middle 1970s, and about the potential intergenerational effects of such inequality. However, there has been an opposite trend in the effects of social origins on being BMG. A trend is not a law, and there is reason to be concerned about the recent deceleration of the secular decline in effects of social background on being BMG.