China population according to the 2002 census is around 2.2 billion people. The
Republic of China has 20 percent of the world's population making it the world's
most populous country. History reveals that after 1949 the Communist victory over
Nationalist brought about a collective economic system that had little enterprise
and only after 1976 economic reforms brought privatization. The population growth
between mid 19th to mid 20th century grew slowly from 400 million to 583 million
as shown by the 1953 census. But the Communist government with its universal health
care system reduced the death rate in China as a result the population has doubled
in the last 50 years.
There are 5 provinces in China with a population over 50 million (2001) and
all of China's 4 municipalities has population over 10 million. (2001). But
the China population growth reduced from 1990 to 2000 (1. 07%) and in 2001 it
was as low as 0.88 percent. Even though successive control of birth rate and
death rate the birth rate exceeds death by 9 million. This is because of the
large number of women are in their child bearing age. The urban population of
China increased from 21 percent to 26 percent and 36 percent of the population
lived in cities (1982- 1990).
China population is unevenly distributed as 95 percent of the population lives
in the southeastern half of the country. The effort by the government to encourage
movement to northeastern region and Tibet has led to ethnic conflicts between
the non-Hans and the Hans. The demographic composition of China population reveals
that 92 percent of the population comprises of the ethnic Hans. The other groups
are the Zhuang, Manchu, Moslem Hui, Miao Uigur, Mongolian and Tibetan.
In order to restrict the growth of China population the government implemented
one child policy in 1979. The policy stood for fines on unauthorized children,
raised minimum marriage age, IUD insertion, abortion and sterilization. But
this one child policy led to more preference for sons and thereby leading to
imbalance in the sex ratio.
In 2001 The People's Congress approved and reinforced the one child norm but
with some variations. The rural couples whose first child is female are allowed
to have second child. There are incentives to those who do not violate while
punishments for those who have a second child.
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