China Still Needs Family Planning

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 16, 2002

China Still Needs Family Planning

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China, the world's most populous nation, will continue to carry out its family planning policy for a long period of time, a Chinese official told the on-going Sixth Asia-Pacific Social Sciences and Medicine Conference in Kunming.

Gu Baochang, deputy secretary-general of China Family Planning Association, said that China is facing the problem that its low birth rate coexists with still high population growth and this phenomenon is not expected to improve anytime soon.

Gu pointed out that in 2000, China's birth rate was 15 per thousand and its natural population growth rate was 9 per thousand, lower than the global average of 22 per thousand and 13 per thousand respectively.

However, in 2000, China had an increase in population of 11 million, even higher than the 10.3 million growth of 1950.

China currently boasts a population of 1.3 billion and based on the above figures, that number will reach 1.6 billion around 2050.

This means China will not be able to say its population problems have been solved anytime in the near future, Gu said.

But since the population growth rate in rural areas is far higher than in urban areas and China has taken measures to promote its urbanization process, China has the potential to continue and to strengthen its family planning policy, he added.

The Sixth Asia-Pacific Social Sciences and Medicine Conference kicked off in the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province Monday and will close on Friday.

About 700 sociologists and medical experts from 27 countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific region gathered here to discuss issues and challenges facing the health field.

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