The Population Policy of China

Abstract

Chinas population policy has as its goals 1) a planned increase in population and 2) a redistribution of the population interregionally from town to country and of young people to the countryside in order to promote the development of self-sufficient regional economies. The various factors which affect the implementation of these goals are: 1) the method of organization communication and motivation of the masses currently employed in Chinese society; 2) economic and social development; 3) changes in the structure and function of the family from an independent patriarchial unit to a communal unit; 4) the improved status of women; and 5) the development of public health services to both improve the health of the citizens and to provide family planning services. The family planning program has as its aim not only the acceptance of contraceptive methods but also the postponement of marriage. It is hoped in this fashion to raise the intergenerational gap from 20-30 years to reduce the size of an average family to 2 children and to increase the time between the birth of these children. The population policy of China is therefore intimately connected with the economic and social development of the nation.