Q: Many people in the international community accuse
China's family planning policy of violating human rights. Why does
China carry out this policy? Are there differences in its
implementation when it comes to urban and rural areas, and ethnic
minority areas?
A: Criticisms of China's family planning policy result from
ignorance of China's national conditions. Anyone who has visited
China shares the same feeling—there are too many people. The third
census, conducted in 1982, showed that China's population had
reached 1.03 billion, and now this number has increased to 1.3
billion. This massive population has imposed great pressure on
China's social and economic life. A national condition
characterized by a large population and weak infrastructure makes
it inevitable that China must carry out this policy.
China began to promote the family planning in the early 1980s.
This policy does not mean that a couple is only allowed to have one
child. It is a diversified policy and cannot be understood in a
simplified way.
China's current fertility rate is 1.8, which means that for
quite a long time it has not been the case that every family,
everywhere, has only one child. For example, in urban areas, if
both husband and wife are only children in their families, they can
have two children. In most rural areas, if a family only has one
girl, the couple can have another child. In some remote and poor
mountainous areas, farmers are allowed to have two children. In
ethnic minority areas, more preferential policies permit some
families to have three children, and in the farming and pastoral
areas in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, families are allowed to
have four children. In Tibet's farming and pastoral areas, there is
no restriction on childbirth. Therefore, the family planning policy
is worked out according to different economic and social situations
in different regions.
In the past 20 years, family planning measures have helped to
curb the rapid population growth. If we had not enacted this
policy, there would have been 338 million more births, which would
have cost the country a significant amount in resources, imposed
heavy pressure on the environment and hindered development of the
economy and improvement of people's living standards. If we had not
taken this policy, China's population would have increased to 1.6
billion. The world would have greeted the 6 billionth human on
Earth four years earlier.
In the 21st century, the large population will remain the major
problem affecting China's development of the economy and society.
Because of its large base and the inertia of growth, in the coming
decades, China's population will witness a net growth of over 10
million people each year. Only if the population is kept within 1.4
billion by the year 2010 and approaches 1.6 billion by the middle
of this century, could the population begin declining thereafter.
In this sense, the family planning policy needs to be kept stable
instead of being adjusted, and how long this policy should be
continued must be decided according to China's future
development.
China is the most populous country in the
world. The picture shows a crowded scene at a park in the seaside
city of Qingdao, Shandong Province.
