Family planning stands pat in China
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E-mail China Daily, January 16, 2013
"A country's birthrate is closely related to its economic and social development," Zhai said. "Normally, the higher the development level of a country, the lower is its birthrate."
Most countries with a birthrate lower than 2.0 are developed countries with high levels of urbanization, social security and education, and a per capita GDP of more than $30,000, he said. In comparison, the per capita GDP of China was $5,400 in 2011, according to the International Monetary Fund.
"This showed China's low birthrate is not a natural result of social and economic development," he said.
"Rather, it is largely attributed to the family planning policy that has been enforced over the past three decades," he said.
Because China's economic and social development still lag behind a level in line with its low birthrate, the nation's current birthrate is not stable and would certainly rebound sharply in most parts of China, except in a few large developed cities, he said.
Although China's population growth rate remains low, the number of newborns has still been 16 million annually in recent years due to the large population base, which will continue to put a burden on environmental protection and resources, he added.
"This means China will have to continue to carry out family planning policies over the long term to ease the pressure," he said.
Lu, the Peking University professor, said, "The family planning policy has never been simply a one-child rule". He added that the policy has improved with economic and social development in the past decade.
China adopted a family planning policy, which limited most couples to just one child, in the 1970s.
Currently, rural couples may have a second child if the first is a girl. In urban areas, couples who are both the only child of their families are allowed to have a second child.
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