Establishing legal system completely and controlling the excessive population growth]

China during the early years of Socialism concentrated on economic development. Population problems were given a low priority. But now, at this point in China's history, it is necessary to maintain the stability and uniformity of the birth policy through legislation, alter attitudes toward childbearing through legal education, and protect through laws the enthusiastic nature of family planning work of cadres. Without legislation, family planning work cannot endure. It is the proper time to promulgate "Family Planning Law", the body of laws written by the State Council after 5 years of research in family planning work. Critics of this view feel that conditions in rural areas are not ripe for such a law, or that because China is large and populous, laws are not the proper method for controlling population, or that legal restrictions would bring unforeseen consequences in the future. But China's population problem is immediate and dire, and conditions are indeed ripe for passing this law.     

中国出生性别比异常的特征分析

利用对中国人口有代表性的、最新资料 ,分析中国出生性别比异常的变化趋势和人群、地域特征。我国出生性别比持续异常 ,主要表现为第二及以上孩次的出生性别比的升高 ,其中只有姐姐的婴儿出生性别比异常升高情况最为严重 ;且随时间的推移越来越严重 ;从地域分布来说 ,华南和华东地区出生性别比异常现象最为严重     

To raise the family planning work to a new level--a comprehensive introduction to the National Family Planning Working Conference]

The National Family Planning Working Conference convened on August 10-16, 1982 in Beijing, China. Among the 250 conferees were family planning representatives from various provinces, cities, autonomous regions, the People's Liberation Armt, representatives of partial progressive areas, counties, communes, the Central Committee, State Council, All China Women's Federation, All China Federation of Trade Unions, journalists and population theorists. Topics of discussion included the current situation of family planning work, how to implement the Central Committee's directive on improving family planning work, and the relationship between population law and population development by the year 2000. On August 18 Premier Zhao Ziyang told various representatives at a meeting that population control was a longterm national policy and emphasized its importance in long-range economic and social planning. The Vice-premier of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Wang Shoudao, implored the representatives to understand the directive's contents and said family planning would serve later generations. The Chairman of the National Family Planning Commission, Quian Xinzhong, reviewed the current population situation, noting the encouraging fact that the birth rate for the first 6 months of 1982 was higher than the first 6 months in 1981 by only 1/1000. In order to raise birth control work to a new level, he suggested the following steps: strengthen family planning propaganda; strenuously follow the policy of 1 child per family; obtain permission to have a 2nd child; oppose unplanned births; establish various birth control responsibility systems; and improve contraceptive research and techniques.     

Chinese Reproductive Policy at the Turn of the Millennium: Dynamic Stability

In the 1990s, as fertility fell below replacement, China's state birth planning program began reforms, first to improve its state‐centric approach to birth limitation and then to incorporate some elements of a more client‐centered approach. In 2000 and 2001, as part of a regime shift toward “rule by law,” China both further institutionalized and further reformed the program. A March 2000 Decision and a December 2001 Law reaffirm the need for state planning of population and births but mandate a shift in both methods and goals. Methods should shift from direct to indirect regulation, reducing negative effects such as coercion and corruption and increasing positive benefits such as helping poor women develop. Goals should shift from just limiting births toward also delivering reproductive health services. Reforms are occurring also through supporting regulations and changes of procedure within existing regulations. These policies chart a new course for implementation over the next decade.     

Birth planning on many fronts: personal glimpses of innovations in China's Population Programme

The national birth planning program was initiated in 1965 in China with the establishment of a general office for family planning. Birth planning offices exist at the provincial, district, county, and municipal levels. Shanghai, in particular, is cited as 1 locale with a very active birth planning program with publicity campaigns and education reinforced by a national system of incentives. There is also a disincentive measure aimed at those with 2 children who have a 3rd--each parent must forfeit 10% of their monthly wage to the government. The ESCAP mission was told that few were expected to be so penalized since education and propaganda had become more efficient since 1974. Likewise, the province of Guangdong established an incentives/disincentives program with the guiding philosophy being that birth planning, education, ideology, and incentives exist in order to help solve practical problems. Once again in China the significance of population programs has been recognized and the study of population is being reinstituted in universities. The Chinese Academy of Sciences is developing a center for population research in Beijing along with an information center for the purposes of academic and applied research. Beijing University is creating a population studies program in the Economics Department with input from other departments. The municipality of Shanghai has established the Population Research Society while in Guangdong a similar such organization was established in September 1979, with areas of concentration in legal aspects of population change and zero population growth by 2000. Population studies is also being organized at Dr. Sun Yat Sen University and Jie-Nan University.     

Implementation of China's population policy

On July 1, 1982 China's 3rd national population census reported the population of the 29 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions on the mainland at 1,008,175,288, showing a net increase of 460,000,000 or 84% over the 548,000,000 recorded at the end of 1949. At this time China's population is about 1/4 of the world. Its population policy must conform to her national conditions and will be successful only to the extent that it does so. Discussion focuses on the main features of China's population policy. In 1953 the State Council instructed the Ministry of Health to support birth control by providing contraceptives. It also ratified provisions concerning contraception and induced abortions. In 1962 the State Council issued "Instructions on Conscientious Advocacy of Family Planning." China not only advocates and publicized family planning but also takes specific measures. Special administrative organizations were established in 1964 to oversee scientific research, production, and supply of contraceptives and to provide couples of childbearing age with free contraceptives. An all round attack on family planning work in 1966 led to unchecked childbirth resulting in rapid population growth. In 1971 Premier Zhou Enlai reiterated the importance of population control in 1971 and asked that it be incorporated into the 4th Five Year Plan for the development of the national economy. Family planning was incorporated into the Constitution in 1978. China's 20 years of experiences with family planning suggest that a country's population policy becomes effective only with repeated efforts. The 10-year period of turmoil undermined the enforcement of the population policy. Recently the State Family Planning Commission organized a nationwide fertility survey which indicated tremendous successes for China's population control drive. The total fertility rate dropped from 5.29 in the 1950s to 2.63 in the 1980s. The population census shows that the momentum of China's population growth cannot be checked without strict measures because the population is characterized by a huge base figure, a young age composition, and a fertility rate much higher than a population replacement level. China's population policy is formulated in line with her national conditions. Specific provisions for family planning reflect different ways to deal with different people.     

Put the planned birth propaganda and education in number 1 place: a summary of a conference]

The Planned Birth Office of the Chinese State Council convened a National Planned Birth Propaganda Symposium in Beijing from January 10 to 14, 1981. There were over 50 representatives from various provincial, municipal, autonomous regional planned birth offices, Shanghai, Beijing, and Chengdu's Planned Birth Propaganda and Education Centers, the Central Cultural, Education and Public Health Ministries, and various population research centers, and journalists. The Vice-premier of the Chinese State Council, Chen Muhua made the following points in an address to the delegates: planned birth is a longterm project; the 2-fold character of production, i.e., material production and human reproduction, must be properly understood; the goal of limiting China's population to 1,200,000,000 is difficult, so everyone must plan for their families by understanding the work of birth planning early, carefully, and securely, and further that late marriage, late births, few births, and superior births must be advocated the attitude that families without sons will have no heirs must be abolished because girls are heirs too; the fear that China will become an aged society must be ameliorated because China's age structure is a young one. Wang Renchong, Chairman of the Central Propaganda Ministry, also addressed the Symposium. He remarked that with a population approaching 1 billion, 80% of whom are peasants, population control is crucial to the nation's health and survival and is an important part of the Four Modernizations. Birth planning propaganda and education must be given top priority, especially in rural areas. The chairman of the Planned Birth Office of the Chinese State Council closed the meetings by saying that birth planning work must rely on the Party and governmental policies, and especially on propaganda.     

人口立法与人口教育应同步进行

我国《人口与计划生育法》实施以来,不仅使我国司法机关和人口工作者在人口管理中有法可依,而且给理论工作者拓展了一个新的研究空间。人口教育对人口立法起着制约的作用,二者只有同步进行,才能充分发挥法律效力,实现人口与经济、社会、资源、环境的协调发展。     

Bulletin of major figures from manual tabulation of the national sample survey on fertility and birth control of China

The State Council, the State Family Planning Commission, the State Statistical Bureau, the State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Public Security of China together carried out a national sample survey on fertility and birth control in China in 1988. The survey was carried out in 30 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government. The Tibetan Autonomous Region and the Hainan Province were surveyed for the 1st time, but the results from Tibet were not collected in time for this publication. The main respondents were the married women at age 15-57, with 2,114,591 people surveyed and a sampling proportion of 1.98/1000. This article describes the survey and its results according to birth rate, parity composition, and rural-urban fertility differences. Birth rates, mortality rates, and natural increase rates from high to low orders were tabulated for: urban areas, farms, towns, rural townships, and suburban townships. With the first 1/2 of 1988 birth rates tabulated, it was estimated that the total number of births in China will be less than in 1987. In 1987, the rate of 3rd or higher parity birth was below 5% in 6 provinces and municipalities, but 10 provinces and autonomous regions were over 20%. Fertility rates showed considerable disparity depending on the locational demographics (e.g. birth rates in urban areas were 14.3/1000 yet birth rates were 24.3/1000 in suburban townships).     

Current status of and prospects for China Population Information Centre

The China Population information Centre (CPIC), set up in May 1980, is a national institution for population information research under the State Family Planning Commission. Its main functions are to 1) collect, process, and distribute and foreign materials on population and family planning; 2) collect, tabulate, and analyze population and family planning data; 3) keep abreast of new population and family planning developments within and outside the country; 4) edit and publish information materials; and 5) provide information users with diversified services. The CPIC has 8 operational units: 1) the Library, 2) the Statistics Division, 3) the 1st Information Research Division, 4) the 2nd Information Research Division, 5) the Editorial Division, 6) the Translation Division, 7) the Computer Division, and 8) the Technical Support Division.     

计划生育依法行政理论与实践初探

计划生育工作的依法行政是依法治国方略的基本要求 ,是社会主义市场经济发展的必然产物 ,是实现计划生育行政管理职能的重要手段。计划生育行政执法应坚持合法性、合理性和高效率原则。当前存在的问题主要有计划生育行政执法者自身的素质不高 ,管理对象法律意识淡薄以及立法上存在的问题。应加强计划生育执法队伍建设 ,完善立法工作 ,健全执法监督体制 ,提高执法水平     

Dudley Kirk on Population Changes and Prospective Power Relations after World War II: A View from 1943

The theory of demographic transition in its best‐known modern formulation was developed in the early 1940s by a small group of researchers associated with Princeton University's Office of Population Research, under the leadership of Frank W. Notestein. A notable early adumbration of the theory in print—in fact preceding the most often cited contemporaneous articles by Notestein and by Kingsley Davis—was by Dudley Kirk, one of the Princeton demographers, in an article titled “Population changes and the postwar world,” originally presented by its author on 4 December 1943 at the 38th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Society, held in New York. It is reproduced below in full from the February 1944 issue of American Sociological Review (Vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 28–35). In the article Kirk, then 30 years old, briefly discusses essential elements of the concept of the demographic transition. He characterizes trends in birth and death rates as closely linked to developmental changes: to the transition “from a peasant, self‐sufficient society to an urban, industrial society.” He sees the countries of the world as arranged on a “single continuum of development” and, correspondingly, on a continuum of demographic configurations. These countries, he suggests, may be divided into three broad groups: the first, with high mortality and high fertility, possessing great potential population growth; the second, “caught up in the tide of industrialization and urbanization,” hence exhibiting birth and death rates that are both declining but in a pattern that generates rapid population growth; and a third, with low fertility and low mortality, pointing toward the prospect of eventual depopulation. He describes the temporal and geographic process of material progress and demographic change as one of cultural and technological diffusion emanating from the West. But Kirk's main interest in this article is the effects of the patterns generated by economic change and the ensuing demographic transition on shifts in relative power—military and economic—within the system of nations, both historically and in the then dawning postcolonial era. On the latter score, even if occasionally colored by judgments reflecting perspectives unsurprising in 1943, such as in his assessment of the economic potential of the Soviet Union, Kirk's probing of the likely consequences of evolving trends in power relationships as shaped by shifting economic and demographic weights—issues now largely neglected in population studies—is often penetrating and remarkably prescient. His views on the implication of these trends for the desirable American stance toward the economic and demographic modernization of less developed countries—friendly assistance resulting in rapid expansion of markets, and trade speeding a social evolution that also brings about slower population growth—represent what became an influential strand in postwar US foreign policy. Dudley Kirk was born 6 October 1913 in Rochester, New York, but grew up in California. After graduating from Pomona College, he received an M.A. in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University in 1935 and a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard in 1946. He was associated with Princeton's OPR between 1939 and 1947, where he published his influential monograph Europe's Population in the Interwar Years (1946) and, with Frank Notestein and others, coauthored the book The Future Population of Europe and the Soviet Union (1944). From 1947 to 1954 he was demographer in the Office of Intelligence Research of the US State Department, the first person having that title in the federal government. From 1954 to 1967 he was director of the Demographic Division of the Population Council in New York, and from 1967 until his retirement in 1979 he was professor of population studies at Stanford University. In 1959–60 he was president of the Population Association of America. Dudley Kirk died 14 March 2000 in San Jose, California.     

各地人口与计划生育条例奖惩条款的问题研究

《中华人民共和国人口与计划生育法》施行以来,各地修订了原有的人口与计划生育条例,但是在奖励与社会保障对象的界定以及社会抚养费标准的确定、征收办法这两方面还存在问题。对此进行分析并提出相关建议有益于法规的进一步完善。     

人口和计划生育统计公报2006年第1号 第四次全国人口和计划生育系统人事统计公报

为掌握全国人口和计划生育系统乡级及以上机构、编制、人员情况,国家人口和计划生育委员会组织实施了第四次全国人口和计划生育系统人事统计。统计时点为2005年12月31日。统计范围包括大陆地区县级及以上人口和计划生育委员会及其直属、挂靠单位,新疆生产建设兵团的各级人口和计划生育委员会及其直属、挂靠单位,乡（镇、街道）人口和计划生育管理、服务机构。现将主要结果公布如下：     

Organization and implementation of China's national sampling survey on fertility and birth control

The Planning and Statistical Department of the State Family Planning Commission of China in July 1988 implemented a fertility and birth control survey in China on 2.16 million married women ages 15-57 using stratified, systematic, clustered, and non-proportionate sampling. 3 questionnaires were used: household, married women, and sample unit covering basic status, family planning status, general characteristics of pregnancy and contraception, population flow, deaths since 1981, and socioeconomic status. The authors suggest several international cooperative research projects including: design of fertility and contraception survey; Chinese population growth; Chinese population dynamics; dynamics of marital and family status; fertility; contraception and birth control; mortality; migration; status of the nationalities of China; population development; regional fertility status; and others. Data from the survey will be available in June 1989.     

Mexico's population policy turnaround

Until 1972 Mexico's officials seemed to believe that the annual population growth rate of 3.5% was not really a problem as long as the economic development rate could be kept ahead of the population growth rate. The General Law of Population of 1947 was actually promoting population growth. It was only during the 1960s that elite opinion shifted, and privately funded family planning programs became increasingly active. By 1972 the population had reached 54 million, from 20 million in 1940. President Echevarria, till then a traditional pronatalist, announced in 1972 the creation of a national family planning program, and, in 1974, the creation of a national population council. Since then the Mexican government has embarked on ambitious programs of mass communication and sex education to make the population receptive to its new attitudes. The plans have worked: by mid-1979 estimates put the population growth rate at 2.9%, within sight of the 2.5% target set for 1982 by new president Lopez Portillo. According to a survey conducted by the National Fertility Survey, by late 1976 41.50% of Mexican women of childbearing age were practicing contraception. Within the 41.50% of active contraceptors, 14.9% use the pill, and 7.8% the IUD. New channels of information and of contraceptive delivery are being explored to reach Mexico's widely scattered rural population, and to bring the average family size down to 2 children from the average of 6.5 children per woman for 1973-1975. The government goal is of a 1% population increase by the year 2000.     

World Population Day '93 observed

President Abdur Rahman Biswas inaugurated the World Population Day '93 at the Osmani Memorial Hall in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on July 11. He stressed the importance of reducing the national population growth rate from 2.03% in 1923 to 1.82% by the 1995. The event was organized jointly by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Directorate of Family Planning, and the United Nations Population fund (UNFPA). The president expressed his deep concern over the population growth rates in developing countries, which are much higher than resources. He noted with satisfaction that 40% of the eligible couples in the country practice family planning (FP) and expressed hope that this could be raised to 50% by 1995. If the program becomes successful, ideal families would consist of two children by 2005. He later presented prizes and certificates to field workers, ulemas, traditional birth attendants, FP depot holders, and the workers of nongovernmental organizations for their commendable services in Fp and maternal-child health services. The Health and Family Welfare minister in his speech warned that if the current population growth is not checked, the consequences would be disastrous, which could be averted by adopting new strategies. The deputy minister for Health and Family Welfare illustrated the threat of population escalation and recounted some of the recent government control measures. The secretary, Ministry of Health Family Welfare, said that at the present rate of growth the Bangladeshi population would double in 34 years. The director general, Directorate of Family Planning, said that the FP program has become accountable with a system of incentives and disincentives. Earlier, the UNFPA country director in his speech remarked that it was crucial for the entire world to solve the population problem. In the morning, in the main cities, hundreds of people involved in national FP activities paraded to demonstrate the social legitimacy of the Bangladeshi Fp program.     

SHORT REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Lourdes Benería with Savitri Blsnath (eds.), Gender and Development: Theoretical, Empirical and Practical Approaches Margaret Jolly and Kalpana Ram (eds.), Borders of Being: Citizenship, Fertility, and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific John Loxley, Interdependence, Disequilibrium and Growth: Reflections on the Political Economy of North‐South Relations at the Turn of the Century William Petersen, From Birth to Death: A Consumer's Guide to Population Studies Zeba Ayesha Sathar and James F. Phillips (eds.), Fertility Transition in South Asia M. A. B. Siddique (ed.), International Migration into the 21st Century: Essays in Honour of Reginald Appleyard Ewa Tabeau, Anneke van den Berg Jeths, and Christopher Heathcote (eds.), Forecasting Mortality in Developed Countries: Insights from a Statistical, Demographic and Epidemiological Perspective Arne Tostensen, Inge Tvedten, and Mariken Vaa (eds.), Associational Life in African Cities: Popular Responses to the Urban Crisis United Nations Population Fund, The State of World Population 2001. Footprints and Milestones: Population and Environmental Change     

Comprehensive understanding of "truth of China's family planning practices"

This is an account of the tour by 25 U.S. Congressmen to the Peoples' Republic of China in November 1986 to determine the degree of coercion in the family planning program. 1st, the delegates attended a conference in Beijing, introducing the family planning program in China, lead by the minister of the China State Family Planning Commission. Then they had talks with researchers at the Population Research Centre. The group split up and some inspected the Nanjing Institute of Family Planning Management. Others went to Shanghai and visited the International Peace Hospital of Maternity and Child Care. 2 delegates travelled to a rural community in Jiangsu Province. Thus, the congressmen and women got a wide exposure of central authorities and local organizations. A spokesman for the Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee emphasized that the few incidents of coercion were exceptions, contrary to policy, and greatly spectacularized in the western press. Some cases were merely a variety of management style, and were dealt with by admonition. Women usually go for abortions on their own request. Those who have unplanned births are subject to social pressure and taxation. China's population policy must be respected as it is designed to meet her particular needs.     

The National Conference of Propaganda Work on Family Planning held Beijing]

The National Conference on Propaganda Work in Family Planning, held in Beijing from November 1-6, 1982, was sponsored by the the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and the National Family Planning Committee. Among the 136 participants were representatives from various provincial, city, and autonomous region propaganda and family planning units, the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army, general trade unions, All China Women's Federation, Communist Youth League, and propaganda reporters. The purpose of the conference was to discuss how to organize family planning propaganda in meeting China's goal of limiting the population to 1,200,000,000 by 2000, and how to arrange a Family Planning Propaganda Month for early 1983. The Chairman of the National Family Planning Committee made 3 points: family planning is a basic national policy, greater propaganda efforts must be made towards peasant family planning, and everyone must work hard to create a new situation in family planning work. The Vice Minister of the Propaganda Department remarked that family planning propaganda was foremost among the 12 national propaganda topics; these sentiments were supported totally by the representatives of the women and youth groups. The Vice Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Central Committee said that family planning work was longterm, and that its success lay in the countryside. Finally, the Vice Chairman of the National Family Planning Committee encouraged all delegates to take the spirit of the conference back to their home. During the conference delegates also met to discuss important points in planning the Family Planning Propaganda Month.