Population and Development Planning in China

This volume offers insights into the demographic planning process in the world's most populous country. The population of China is well over 1.1 billion and it could reach 1.7 billion by the year 2025 unless the birth rate is further reduced. Chinese scholars and government officials have long recognized the serious economic, ecological and social problems caused by rapid rates of population growth. The book offers the perspectives of Chinese officials and scholars of the State Planning Commission (SPC) and foreign scholars who collaborated with the SPC in carrying out a project on population and development planning. Their contributions describe some of the pressures building up in the Chinese economy and government prior to the events of 1989, and offer some clues as to the likely course population policy will take in the People's Republic of China.