After 1949 sanitation and medical care greatly improved, epidemics were

brought under control, and the younger generation became much healthier.

Public hygiene also improved, resulting in a death rate that declined

faster than the birth rate and a rate of population growth that speeded up

again. Population reached 1,000.000.000 in the early 1980s.

Now China has a population of 1,295.33 million. Compared with the

population of 1,133.68 million from the 1990 population census (with zero

hour of July 1, 1990 as the reference time), the total population of the 31

provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and the servicemen of the

mainland of China increased by 132.15 million persons, or 11.66 percent

over the past 10 years and 4 months. The average annual growth was 12.79

million persons, or a growth rate of 1.07 percent.

The continually growing population poses major problems for the

government. Faced with difficulties in obtaining an adequate food supply

and in combating the generally low standard of living, the authorities

sponsored Drive a drive for birth control in 1955-58. A second attempt at

for birth population control began in 1962, when advocacy of late control

marriages and the use of contraceptives became prominent parts of

the program. The outbreak of the Cultural Revolution interrupted this

second family-planning drive, but in 1970 a third and much stricter program

was initiated. This program attempted to make late marriage and family

limitation obligatory, and it culminated in 1979 in efforts to implement a

policy of one child per family.

Other developments affected the rate of population growth more than the

first two official family-planning campaigns. For example, although family

planning had been rejected by Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong

(Mao Tse-tung) in 1958, the Great Leap Forward that he initiated in that

year (see below The economy) caused a massive famine that resulted in more

deaths than births and a reduction of population in 1960. By 1963 recovery

from the famine produced the highest rate of population increase since

1949, at more than 3 percent, although the second birth-control campaign

had already begun.

Since the initiation of the third family-planning program in 1970,

however, state efforts have been much more effective. China's population

growth rate is now unusually low for a developing country, although the

huge size of its population still results in a large annual net population

growth.

Below I described the distribution of China’s population by different

characteristics.

I. Sex Composition.

Of the people enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and

municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 653.55 million

persons or 51.63 percent were males, while 612.28 million persons or 48.37

percent were females. The sex ratio (female=100) was 106.74.

?

II. Age Composition.

Of the people enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and

municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 289.79 million

persons were in the age group of 0-14, accounting for 22.89 percent of the

total population; 887.93 million persons in the age group of 15-64,

accounting for 70.15 percent and 88.11 million persons in the age group of

65 and over, accounting for 6.96 percent. As compared with the results of

the 1990 population census, the share of people in the age group of 0-14

was down by 4.80 percentage points, and that for people aged 65 and over

was up by 1.39 percentage points.

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III. Composition of Nationalities.

Of the people enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and

municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 1,159.40 million

persons or 91.59 percent were of Han nationality, and 106.43 million

persons or 8.41 percent were of various national minorities. Compared with

the 1990 population census, the population of Han people increased by

116.92 million persons, or 11.22 percent; while the population of various

national minorities increased by 15.23 million persons, or 16.70 percent.

?

IV. Composition of Educational Attainment.

Of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen

of the mainland of China, 45.71 million persons had finished university

education (referring to junior college and above); 141.09 million persons

had received senior secondary education (including secondary technical

school education); 429.89 million persons had received junior secondary

education and 451.91 million persons had had primary education (the

educated persons included graduates and students in schools).

Compared with the 1990 population census, the following changes had taken

place in the number of people with various educational attainments of every

100,000 people: number of people with university education increased to

3,611 from 1,422; number of people with senior secondary education

increased to 11,146 from 8,039; number of people with junior secondary

education increased from 23,344 to 33,961; and number of people with

primary education decreased from 37,057 to 35,701.

Of the people enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and

municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 85.07 million

persons were illiterate (i.e. people over 15 years of age who can not read

or can read very little). Compared with the 15.88 percent of illiterate

people in the 1990 population census, the proportion had dropped to 6.72

percent, or down by 9.16 percentage points.

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V. Urban and Rural Population.

In the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of the mainland

of China, there were 455.94 million urban residents, accounting for 36.09

percent of the total population; and that of rural residents stood at

807.39 million, accounting for 63.91 percent. Compared with the 1990

population census, the proportion of urban residents rose by 9.86

percentage points.

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION

Following are the results from the advance tabulation on the geographic

distribution of population from the fifth national population census of

China:

|Region |Population (million) |

|Beijing Municipality |13.82 |

|Tianjin Municipality |10.01 |

|Hebei Province |67.44 |

|Shanxi Province |32.97 |

|Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region|23.76 |

|Liaoning Province |42.38 |

|Jilin Province |27.28 |

|Heilongjiang Province |36.89 |

|Shanghai Municipality |16.74 |

|Jiangsu Province |74.38 |

|Zhejiang Province |46.77 |

|Anhui Province |59.86 |

|Fujian Province |34.71 |

|(excluding the population in | |

|Jinmen and Mazu and a few other | |

|islands) | |

|Jiangxi Province |41.40 |

|Shandong Province |90.79 |

|Henan Province |92.56 |

|Hubei Province |60.28 |

|Hunan Province |64.40 |

|Guangdong Province |86.42 |

|Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region|44.89 |

|Hainan Province |7.87 |

|Chongqing Municipality |30.90 |

|Sichuan Province |83.29 |

|Guizhou Province |35.25 |

|Yunnan Province |42.88 |

|Tibet Autonomous Region |2.62 |

|Shaanxi Province |36.05 |

|Gansu Province |25.62 |

|Qinghai Province |5.18 |

|Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region |5.62 |

|Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region|19.25 |

|Hongkong Special Administrative |6.78 |

|Region | |

|Macao Special Administrative |0.44 |

|Region | |

|Taiwan Province and Jinmen, Mazu|22.28 |

|and a few other islands of | |

|Fujian Province | |

|Servicemen |2.50 |

Because of complex natural conditions, the population of China is quite

unevenly distributed. Population density varies strikingly, with the

greatest contrast occurring between the eastern half of China and the lands

of the west and the north-west. Exceptionally high population densities

occur in the Yangtze Delta, in the Pearl River Delta, and on the Ch'eng-tu

Plain of the western Szechwan Basin. Most of the high-density areas are

coterminous with the alluvial plains on which intensive agriculture is

centred.

In contrast, the isolated, extensive western and frontier regions,

which are much larger than any European nation, are sparsely populated.

Extensive uninhabited areas include the extremely high northern part of

Tibet, the sandy wastes of the central Tarim and eastern Dzungarian basins

in Sinkiang, and the barren desert and mountains east of Lop Nor.

In the 1950s the government became increasingly aware of the importance

of the frontier regions and initiated a drive for former members of the

military and young intellectuals to settle there. Consequently, the

population has increased, following the construction of new railways and

highways that traverse the wasteland; a number of small mining and

industrial towns have also sprung up.

[pic]

INTERNAL MIGRATION

Migrations have occurred often throughout the history of China.

Sometimes they took place because a famine or political disturbance would

cause the depopulation of an area already intensively cultivated, after

which people in adjacent crowded regions would move in to occupy the

deserted land. Sometime between 1640 and 1646 a peasant rebellion broke out

in Szechwan, and there was a great loss of life. People from Hupeh and

Shensi then entered Szechwan to fill the vacuum, and the movement continued

until the 19th century. Again, during the middle of the 19th century, the

Taiping Rebellion caused another large-scale disruption of population. Many

people in the Lower Yangtze were massacred by the opposing armies, and the

survivors suffered from starvation. After the defeat of the rebellion,

people from Hupeh, Hunan, and Honan moved into the depopulated areas of

Kiangsu. Anhwei. and Chekiang, where farmland was lying uncultivated for

want of labour. Similar examples are provided by the Nien Rebellion in the

Huai River region in the 1850s and '60s, the Muslim rebellions in Shensi

and Kansu in the 1860s and '70s, and the great Shensi and Shansi famine of

1877-78.

In modern history the domestic movement of the Han to Manchuria (now

known as the Northeast) is the most Migration significant. Even before

the establishment of the Ch'ing to dynasty in 1644, Manchu soldiers

launched raids into Manchuria North China and captured Han labourers,

who were then obliged to settle in Manchuria. In 1668 the area was closed

to further Han migration by an Imperial decree, but this ban was never

effectively enforced. By 1850. Han settlers had secured a position of

dominance in their colonisation of Manchuria. The ban was later partially'

lifted, partly because the Manchu rulers were harassed by disturbances

among the teeming population of China proper and partly because the Russian

Empire time and again tried to invade sparsely populated and thus weakly

defended Manchuria. The ban was finally removed altogether in 1878, but

settlement was encouraged only after 1900. The influx of people into

Manchuria was especially pronounced after 1923, and incoming farmers

rapidly brought a vast area of virgin prairie under cultivation. About two-

thirds of the immigrants entered Manchuria by sea, and one-third came

overland. Because of the severity of the winter weather, migration in the

early stage was highly seasonal, usually starting in February and

continuing through the spring. After the autumn harvest a large proportion

of the farmers returned south. As Manchuria developed into the principal

industrial region of China, however, large urban centres arose, and the

nature of the migration changed. No longer was the movement primarily one

of agricultural resettlement; instead it became essentially a rural-to-

urban movement of interregional magnitude. After 1949 the new government's

efforts to foster planned migration into interior and border regions

produced noticeable results. Although the total number of people involved

in such migrations is not known, it has been estimated that by 1980 about

25 to 35 percent of the population of such regions and provinces as Inner

Mongolia, Sinkiang, Heilungkiang. and Tsinghai consisted of recent

migrants, and migration had raised the percentage of Han in Sinkiang from

about 10 to 40 percent of the total. Efforts to control the growth of large

cities led to the resettlement of 20,000,000 urbanites in the countryside

after the failure of the Great Leap Forward and of 17,-000,000 urban-

educated youths in the decade after 1968. Within the next decade, however,

the majority of these "rusticated youths" were allowed to return to the

cities, and new migration from rural areas pushed urban population totals

upward once again.

China Sticks to Population Control Policy in New Century

China will continue its efforts to control the growth of the population

in the 21 century, said Zhang Weiqing, minister of the State Family

Planning Commission on November 2, 2000.

At the annual board meeting of the Partners in Population and

Development by South-South Cooperation, which opened Thursday in Beijing,

Zhang said that keeping a low birth rate is the key task of China' s family

planning program in the coming decade.

He said that China has made it a goal to keep the population below 1.4

billion until 2010 on the basis of scientific feasibility study.

In order to realise the goal, China is persisting in popularisation and

education about family planning and contraception, and it will make efforts

to build a perfect population control system suitable for China's

situation, said Zhang.

According to Zhang, population will continue to be a pressing issue for

China in the 21st century. The annual net population growth will be more

than 10 million at the start of the new century. The population will not

decline until it reaches a peak of 1.6 billion in the middle of the 21st

century, Zhang said.

At present, China has a large work-age population, which puts a heavy

burden on employment. The work-age population will peak at 900 million in

the coming decades.

In addition, Zhang predicts that the number of senior citizens over the

age of 60 in China will reach 130 million at the end of this year, and will

exceed 357 million in 2030, and 439 million in 2050, or a quarter of the

total population.

Zhang said that China will stick to family planning policy for a long

time depending on future population situation.

President on Population Control, Resources and Environmental Protection

Population control, resources and environmental protection will be

three crucial issues in China's march toward becoming a great power in the

new century, President Jiang Zemin told a seminar held by the Communist

Party of China Central Committee Sunday.

Jiang said that governmental decisions concerning the country's

population control, resources and environmental protection demand concerted

efforts and cooperation from all walks of life.

Jiang warned that although marked progress had been made during the

1996-2000 period, China is still facing many problems and challenges

concerning population, resources and environmental protection in the coming

years.

"These issues are directly related to the country's overall

development. Failure in handling them may postpone the achievement of

China's set goals in terms of social and economic development," said Jiang.

Jiang said that the next few years will be a crucial stage for China to

stabilise its birth rate at the current low level and improve population

quality.

When dealing with population issues, governments at all levels should

better serve the people's needs, and turn the country's birth control

efforts into a cause benefiting China's huge populace, Jiang remarked.

Jiang also said that resource-related works should better serve the

country's sustainable development. Protection and rational utilisation of

resources are to be granted equal importance by administration departments.

Meanwhile, the president called for the establishment of a strict

resources administration mechanism, and urged the transformation of the

traditional resource-utilising norms, to save natural resources from being

wasted.

Jiang suggested the use of new technologies and a complete monitoring

system to curb the country's long-standing environmental pollution, while

guaranteeing healthy economic development.

Also in his speech, Jiang stressed the importance of improving the

regulation of China's scarce water resources and the further construction

of irrigation works.

LITERATURE:

1. NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS PEOPLE'S REPUPLIC OF CHINA.

2. GREAT BRITISH ENCYCLOPAEDIA

3. CHINEESE MAGAZINES (ENGLISH VARIANT)

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