8 Nov 91
FE/1224 C1/20
the daily necessities or luxury articles including silks, satins, shoes, hats, jewellery, jade artifacts and gold or silver
ornaments.
The disparity betwen the minority regions and the inland and coastal areas arose and developed over a long historial period. For more than 40 years since the People's Republic was founded, the Chinese government has made positive achievements in its effort to narrow the gap, promote social! development and bring about a change for the better in the backward minority areas.
VIII. FAMILY PLANNING AND PROTECTION
OF HUMAN RIGHTS
The Chinese government implements a family planning policy in the light of the Constitution, with the aim of promoting economic and social development, raising people's living standards, enhancing the quality of its population and safeguarding the people's rights to enjoy a better life.
China is a developing country with the biggest population in the world. Many people, little arable land, comparatively inadequate per-capita share of natural resources plus a relatively backward economy and culture - these features spell out China's basic national conditions.
The population which is expanding too quickly poses a sharp contradiction to economic and social development, the utilization of resources and environmental protection, places a serious constraint on China's economic and social development, and drags improvement of livelihood and the quality of the people. By the end of 1990, the mainland population had reached 1.14bn. With such an immense population base, China, despite the implementation of birth control, still sees a yearly net increase of 17m people, a number equal to the population of a medium-sized country.
As for the per-capita area of cultivated land, it had dropped to 1.3 mu, representing only 25% of the world average. Similarly, the per-capita share of freshwater resources is just one quarter of the world average. China's grain production ranks first in the world, but divided among the population, the amount of grain per person accounts for just 22% of that in the United States.
More than a quarter of the annual addition to the national income is consumed by the new population born during the same year. As a result, funds for accumulation have to be cut, and the speed of economic growth slowed down. The rapid swelling of the population has brought about many pressures on the country's employment, education, housing, medical care, and communications and transportation.
Faced with the gravity of this situation, the government, in order to guarantee people's minimum living conditions and to enable citizens not only to have enough to eat and wear but also to grow better off, cannot do as some people imagine - wait for a high level of economic development to initiate a natural decline in birthrate. If we did so, the population would grow without restriction, and the economy would deteriorate steadily.
Hence, China has to strive for economic growth by trying in every possible way to increase the productive forces, while at the same time practice the policy of family planning to strictly control population growth so that it may suit economic
SWB
and social development. This is the only correct choice that any government responsible to the people and their descendants can make under China's given set of special circumstances.
It is universally acknowledged that China has achieved tremendous successes in family planning. The birthrate dropped by a big margin from 33.43 per thousand in 1970 to 21.06 per thousand in 1990, and the natural population growth dropped from 25.83 per thousand to 14.39 per thousand. In 1970, the child-bearing rate of Chinese women was 5.81, and the figure decreased to 2.31 in 1990. At present, the above three indicators are lower than the average level of other developing countries. To a certain extent, this success has mitigated the contradiction between China's ballooning population and its economic and social development. It has played an important role in advancing socialist modernization and raising the living standard and the quality of the population. Also it has been an important contribution to the stability of the world's population.
The Chinese government, proceeding from national conditions, has fixed the target of population growth and formulated the following family planning policy: delayed marriage and postponement of having children, giving birth to fewer but healthier children, and one family, one child. Rural families facing genuine difficulties (including households with a single daughter) can have a second child after an interval of several years.
Family planning is also being encouraged among minority nationalities to further their well-being and prosperity, and is based on the minority people's own free will. The specific requirements for minorities are different from those for Han families and are determined by the governments of autonomous regions and provinces according to the population, economy, resources, culture and customs of each. nationality. Such a population policy, taking into account both the state's necessity to control population growth and the masses' real problems and degree of acceptance, tallies with China's actual economic and social situation and conforms to the people's fundamental interests. As experience proves, the policy has been understood and supported by the masses after thoroughgoing publicity and education. The fourth census showed that among the children born in 1989 throughout the country, the more-than-three-children birthrate dropped to 19.32% from 62.21% in 1970.
China adheres to the principle of combining government guidance with the wishes of the masses when carrying out its family planning policy. Since it involves all families, it would be impossible to put the policy into effect in a country with a population of more than 1.1bn without the masses' understanding, support and conscientious participation. Family planning is also a reform of social custom and cannot possibly be carried out just by administrative orders. In the countryside, which is inhabited by 20% of the population, millennia-old traditional ideas remain influential, the economy is backward in some areas, and the social welfare and guarantee systems are still inadequate. People have real difficulties in their production and livelihood. Given these factors the government has always given priority to tireless publics, and educational work among the masses to enhance public