Tools: Save | Print | E-mail | Most Read
Family Planning Policy Prevents 400 Mln Births
Adjust font size:

The family planning policy has helped China prevent 400 million births by the end of 2005, Zhang Weiqing, minister in charge of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, has said.

In an interview with Qiushi (Seeking Truth From Facts) magazine, he said thanks to hard efforts in the past three decades, China has curbed fast population growth and recorded low birth rate, reducing 300 million births by 1998 and 400 million births by 2005.

Government statistics show that there are 1.8 children for a Chinese couple on average, while the number of children for each couple came to six in the early 1970s when the family planning policy was just introduced.

The 400 million births, if not prevented, would postpone China's drive to build a well-off society, said Zhang.

Such an achievement should be recognized as many developed countries spent over a century before reaching low birth rates, he said.

Chinese population experts are predicting a mini-baby boom before 2010 as a result of the country's family planning laws.

However, Zhang Weiqing stressed that family planning laws would remain to stabilize the low birth rate.

The expected boom would be small compared to the previous ones in the early 1950s and 1960s and the late 1980s, he said.

Almost 100 million single children had been born since the initiation of the one-child policy in 1973. Most had reached the age of marriage and childbirth, he said.

Meanwhile, rural couples had been allowed to have a second child if the first was a girl since 1984. These children were also entering adulthood.

(Xinhua News Agency May 3, 2006)


 

Tools: Save | Print | E-mail | Most Read

Related Stories
China to Keep Family Planning Policy Stable
Second National Sample Survey on Disabled Starts
China's Population Reaches 1.306 Billion
China Feels Pressure of Growing Elderly Population
Rural Old Age Insurance -- Project Launch
China to Keep Population Below 1.37b by 2010
Official Says Urban Population to Near 560m by Year-end

Product Directory
China Search
Country Search
Hot Buys
SiteMap | About Us | RSS | Newsletter | Feedback
SEARCH THIS SITE
Copyright © China.org.cn. All Rights Reserved     E-mail: webmaster@china.org.cn Tel: 86-10-88828000 京ICP证 040089号