Nourrir le peuple : politique alimentaire et politique démographique en Chine

Abstract

This paper focuses on the interaction between alimentary and demographic policies in China during the past 10 years, and on the long-term consequences of the new policy of economic readjustment. The repartition of food supply in China depends on 2 principles, egalitarianism and autonomy of production. In rural areas this policy has always resulted in children being used for work around the house and in the fields by the age of 10, with little time for education; children are necessary for the sustainance of the family since the amount of food obtained from the government is in proportion to family size and labour force; this obviously leads to demographic increase. Urban population is in a different situation; expenses for food cover 68.6% of the monthly budget of a family; pressure for the education of children is very strong, with additional expenses, and the whole urban system of life is conducive to antinatalist attitudes. In rural areas the search for autonomy of production has accentuated regional disparities of economics; in 1978 agricultural production represented only 1/4 of the gross national product but involved 84% of the active population; only half of the cultivated land was irrigated and a family needed every member, including children, to work. Moreover, children, especially males, were needed to provide for their parents in old age. This system often forced peasants to report to the local authorities inferior sizes of cultivated land to limit their obligatory delivery of food supply. In 1980 nutrition in China was still based mainly on grains and beans, and a large majority of school-age children are anemic. In 1957 president Mao first took a pro-fertility control position, but nothing was done seriously till after the Cultural Revolution, i.e. until around the 1970s. In 1978 and 1979 there were 2 national congresses on population theory; in 1978 the government decided to extend the promotion of family planning to the whole nation through administrative pressure and economic sanctions; food is provided for a first child, less for a second, and none for a third. The Chinese press is full of reports on the wonderful successes of this policy; today China's population has food enough to survive, but barely. One of China's objectives for the year 2000 is to increase the quantity of grain available to every citizen from 400 to 500 kg. The policy "one couple one child" encounters serious opposition in the countryside, and to reach zero population growth in the year 2000 the Communist Party will have to exercise enormous pressure on the rural population.