The figure usually quoted for China population is 1 billion, or one-quarter of the population of the entire world. The most recently published figure shows the population standing at 996.2 million at the end of 1981. Population control has become one of the most pressing issues of the new era; a member of the Politburo, Chen Muhua, has been appointed to monitor population growth, and the theories of the Chinese population expert Ma Yinchu are the object of discussion.

Throughout the ages China has had a large population checked at different periods by war and famine. By the middle of the nineteenth century the population stood at over 400 million, and in 1949 it was 548 million. The annual growth rate has since been reduced from twenty per thousand to twelve per thousand; the current target is to bring it down even further, and not to exceed a total population of 1.2 billion by the year 2000. China had a baby boom in the 1960s, and today half the population is under twenty-one.

Every effort is being made, using all the machinery of party and government, to mphasize the importance of birth control and one child per couple is considered he ideal; material incentives are offered to those who agree to have one child only, and penalties are exacted on those who exceed this limit. Contraception advice and bortion are both available, and at street or commune team level charts are prepared to work out who can have babies in any one year. The Chinese constitution even includes these words: ‘The State advocates and encourages family planning.’

The revival of emphasis on population control is in keeping with China’s current efforts to ensure an improved standard of living for everyone, better education, and fair distribution of basic goods. However it will be interesting to see the effects on family life of the small nuclear family in a country where traditionally more children have meant more wealth and happiness.

China is the third largest country in the world, and its vast area includes the extremes of climate, vegetation, topography and population. They range from the Permafrost of Heilonggjiang in the north to the monsoons of Guangdong Province in the south, from the Himalayas in the south-west to the East China plain or the Turfan depression in the north-west, from the typhoons of the eastern seaboard to the sandstorms of the Gobi Desert, from Shanghai with its 12 million population to the scantily populated north-west.
Size
Area: Approximately 9.6 million Km²
Distances: East to west over 5000 Km
North to south over 5 500 Km
Coastline 14,000 km
Border 20,000 km
Islands – over 5000
Latitude:
Nansha Islands 4°N
Hainan lslands 8°N
Guangzhou – Tropic of Cancer
Shanghai 31°N
Peking 40°N
Heilongjiang (Amur River) 54°N
Longitude:
East – where the Heilongjiang meets the Ussuri River 136° E , West – the Pamirs on the western edge of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region 73°E