| Abstract: | 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. |
