China still faces a challenging situation in the field of
population control, though 90 million families have adopted the
one-child policy, said Zhang Weiqing, minister of the State Commission of
Population and Family Planning, Monday.
Zhang, in an address at a workshop on family planning, said the
decades-old state policy has benefited the whole Chinese nation. In
recent years, the average age for couples who gave birth to their
first child has become increasingly older, while more and more
couples have accepted the certificate for volunteering to have only
one child in their life, the official said.
The minister, however, admitted that it is still difficult to
change the whole people's traditional concept on birth in a short
period of time, due to traditional culture and views, backward
productivity, and lack of a perfect social security system in the
country.
Under the current birth rate, China's population is expected to
reach 1.37 billion by 2010, and 1.46 billion by 2020.
By 2033, the country's population is expected to peak at about
1.5 billion, according to the official.
(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2005)