Chapter 2
Population of China
Yin Hao
Associate Professor, Vice-Director
Population Research Institute,
Northeast Asian Studies College of
Jilin University
1. Population Policy - Planned Childbirth
China's population policy, including planned childbirth, is characterized by thoroughgoing population control and management, unlike family planning (planned parenthood) as it is often observed in other developing countries.
Full-scale population control began to be implemented in China in the early 1970s, and has continued to be executed. The fundamental aim of the population policy, which is basic national policy, is to control and upgrade the quality of the population. The most remarkable feature of the Chinese population control policy, which is not seen in other countries, is that it is put into effect through a governmental network called the Planned Childbirth Organization, that carries out the central leadership policy at the lowest levels.
To cope with the birth rate problems in the socialist society, China promoted its unique population policy based on "Planned Childbirth" to plan all deliveries throughout the country, with the socialist ideology that the society's total benefit coincides with that of individuals or households. Its planned childbirth policy mainly includes birth control, late marriages, late deliveries, fewer children, and eugenics, and aims to systematically control population growth.
The population policy had taken no less than 30 years to attain favorable results after struggling through the first tentative phases, repeated setbacks, and reforms in implementation.
Looking back on the country's population policy since the establishment of the modern nation, planned childbirth was not implemented in the 1950s, when only the ideology of population control was introduced, while experiment and preparation were carried out. In the first half of the 1960s, the population policy was proposed and began to be put into effect, but was discontinued when the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution started.