The evolution of population policy in rural China

Abstract

Fertility declined rapidly in China in the 1970s, to slightly above replacement level by 1978. It was in-tended by the government that the One-Child Family Policy, introduced in 1979, would lower fertilitystill further. However, the decollectivization of agriculture, also initiated in the late 1970s, weakenedcollective institutions, thereby undermining birth planning administration and family planning services.The consequent stall in fertility was succeeded in 1987 by a sudden and pronounced decline, to a totalfertility rate of 1.8 in 1992. This paper is an attempt to explain this recent decline in terms of fallingdemand for children, the provision of more accessible family planning services, and the operation ofrestrictive population policy. The major emphasis is on the formulation and implementation of birthcontrol policies in rural areas. Since 1979 central government population policy has become progressivelyliberalized, culminating in the formal abandonment of the One-Child Family Policy in 1991. Local policy-makers, however, have been intimately exposed to the reproductive demands of the peasantry. Asa result a uniform national policy co-exists with highly diverse policies at the local level, dependenton social and economic conditions. The declining authority of township (commune) birth planning ad-ministrations was arrested in the late 1980s with the massive injection of funds from all levels of govern-ment. This reversal was aided by the recruitment of over 50 million volunteers by the CommunistParty-led Family Planning Association, to reinforce the work of birth planning cadres and family plan-ning personnel. Above all, it is argued that the effective implementation of local birth plans has reliedon an intensification of cooperation between birth planning officials and other local government cadreswho regulate access to resources, such as land and credit, without which the aspirations of ordinarypeople cannot be realised.