China's population and family planning minister said China would
work to limit its mainland population to below 1.37 billion by
2010.
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Zhang Weiqing, minister in charge of the National Population and
Family Planning Commission (NPFPC), said last Friday that China has
been working over the last few years to build a new mechanism
featuring management according to law, self-governance of villagers
or residents, quality services, policy impetus and comprehensive
management as an overall approach towards the population
issue.
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At a workshop held in Qingdao, Zhang stressed that China would keep
its family planning policy in place to maintain a low birth
rate.
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To some extent, China's population growth has been brought under
control in the past 30 years, with a steady growth of 100 million
people every seven years, postponing China's 1.3-billion Population
Day by four years.
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According to data released by NPFPC, had China failed to implement
the family planning policy, China's population would be nearly 400
million more than the present figure.
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Zhang said China should continue to improve its laws governing
population in an effort to manage unbalanced sex ratios at birth,
reduce birth defect rates, strengthen management of contraception
and family planning services to eliminate practices that hurt
people's legal rights and interests.
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He also stressed that work should be done to study population
policies focusing on all-round development of people and implement
interest-oriented policies to award and assist families that abide
by family planning regulations.
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In 2004, China implemented a pilot project of "rewarding some rural
households practicing family planning." Last year, more than
310,000 farmers in 10 cities in five provinces received about 200
million yuan (US$24 million) in cash rewards for having only one
child or two daughters.
(Xinhua News Agency September 20, 2005)