A few problems concerning population science
Xu, D.
Daily Report. People's Republic of China 1(101): K15-K24
1981
ISSN/ISBN: 0892-0141 PMID: 12311494 Document Number: 387277
This paper discusses problems concerning population science in China within a Marxist perspective. In contrast to capitalism, the socialist society is built on the foundation of the socialist public ownership of the means of production. The socialist law of population, as distinct from the capitalist, means the inevitability of population planning under the socialist mode of production. If rapid population growth is allowed to continue, the yearly increment of material wealth will be conserved by the additional population which will thereby nullify the cultural and material needs of the people. Therefore, population growth planning is necessary to control reproduction and material production as well as the development of the national economy. 3 differences between Chinese population theory and that of the neoMalthusians are discussed: 1) whereas the neoMalthusians propose to safeguard the capitalist system, the Chinese theory is to consolidate the socialist system, 2) Malthusianism emphasizes population growth and ignores, unlike the Chinese system, the possibility of increasing production while achieving population control by degrees, and 3) responsibility for controlling "surplus population" is placed on the working people by neoMalthusians but on the elites in the Chinese system. Recent efforts in China are to control the population by reducing families to one child. In the past 30 years, a series of contradictions have developed in the development of the economy in relation to population growth: 1) distinct disproportion arises between the growth of the total population (66.7% between 1952-78) and that of the means of subsistence (5.4%/year between 1952-78); 2) if population growth is not controlled, a contradiction will occur between those of working ages and the growth of the means of production; and 3) the disproportion between the quality of population and the needs of the modern socialist system. Under the socialist system, population control is characterized by 2 features: 1) it is carried out according to a plan, and 2) it is carried out voluntarily. The size of the Chinese population in the year 2000, if each married couple is restricted to one child, will be controlled within the limit of 1.2 billion; net population growth may be reduced to zero. As a consequence of this new policy, certain social problems may occur: 1) shortages in the labor force because the population will be primarily "elderly", 2) manpower may be reduced for the military, 3) aged people may not have anyone to care for and help them, 4) retirement funds may be affected unless the collective economy is developed, 5) education of the one child family is important and should be adequate, and 6) propaganda about birth control must be implemented. Further development of population science in China is necessary to resolve these problems.