Observations on the Politics of Population Control in China

Abstract

China appears destined to become the first developing country to achieve effective population control before industrialization. Population control in China is one aspect of a total national policy of advancing human welfare which includes programs in general health care, maternal and child health, nutrition, and social security. A major national birth control program launched in the early 1950s reached its maximum effectiveness in 1965. This effort was largely aborted with the Great Leap Forward in 1958. The goal of a birth rate of 2 per cent of total population was finally achieved in 1965, but a setback occurred in 1966 when millions of young people were turned loose to launch the Cultural Revolution. In 1970 an immediate target of a 2 per cent rate increase was announced and a rate of less than 1 per cent was projected by A.D. 2000. The totalitarian government of China sees population control as a high priority goal. The major problems remain in the rural areas where women continue to view male offspring as essential evidence of their fecundity.