Through the planned childbirth control network, China's population policy has been powerfully and effectively implemented, and has succeeded in controlling the population. On the other hand, new complex problems have arisen along with the recent great changes in the economy, especially the conversion to the market economy which the government and the people have united to promote. Under the circumstances, the planned childbirth policy has also been facing new difficulties.
There has been no change in the status of Chinese planned childbirth as a basic national policy. As the conversion to market economy proceeds further, it will take a long time to incorporate gradually the current population control policy in social policies in a larger sense, and to lead the policy towards a soft landing.
2. Population Aging
For 20 years after the founding of the modern nation, China maintained a high birth rate. In the 1970s birth control was introduced, and, in addition, the national policy, referred to as the "Only Child Policy", was promoted from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. Consequently, the birth rate has rapidly and continuously declined. The continuous decrease in birth rate has brought about population downturn, and in the process, changed the population structure in terms of age groups, leading toward aging of the population as a whole. The Chinese population's aging is still at a relatively low level, but some regional aging problems are quite acute. It is expected that measures for future aging and regional policies will confront new problems. A notable feature of the aging of the Chinese population is that the aging is going on in a situation in which the economy has not greatly developed, with relatively low income per capita, and in which social security has not been sufficiently established.
