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Evidence from Chinese Medical Journals on Current Population Policy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2009
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China's bitter population dilemma is clearly summarized in just one short statement from the People's Daily: “We insist on family planning, but generally speaking we think it is a good thing to have a large population.” For the past two decades China's population policy has been shrouded in secrecy, has been expressed only through Communist polemic and has suffered from apparent indecision and consequent vacillations. Official thinking on this subject is almost never expressed in direct statements and proclamations. It must be gleaned from casual remarks by Chinese leaders, from newspaper and magazine articles and official radio broadcasts, which usually discuss implementation but omit reference to the initial decision, and from visitors to China who describe the visible signs that suggest a particular policy is currently in effect.
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- Copyright © The China Quarterly 1969
References
1 Jen-min jih-pao (People's Daily), 15 04 1959Google Scholar, as quoted by Michael, Freeberne, in “Birth Control in China,” Population Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1 (07 1964).Google Scholar
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6 It is important to give this figure some perspective. In a commune of 53,000 persons, there would be approximately 3,800 women between the ages of 20 and 29. Although, of course, the use of the IUD is not limited to this age group, the relationship between the 547 IUD insertions and the age group (almost 15 per cent.) does show the significance of the effort.Google Scholar
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18 ibid.
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24 ibid.
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