中国的计划生育

Family Planning in China

中华人民共和国国务院新闻办公室

Information Office of the State Council Of the People's Republic of China

一九九五年八月·北京

August 1995, Beijing

目　录

Contents

前言

Foreword

    一、 符合国情的战略决策

I. A Strategic Policy That Suits National Conditions      二、 造福于民的社会事业

II. A Social Undertaking That Benefits the People

    三、 国家指导与群众自愿相结合

III. Combination of State Guidance with Voluntary Participation by the Masses

    四、 赢得人民的共识

IV. Bringing the People to a Common Level of Understanding

    五、 满足育龄群众生殖保健的需要

V. Satisfying the Reproductive Health Needs of People of Child-bearing Age

    六、 在改革和发展中走向完善

VI. Optimization Through Reform and Development

    七、 保障人权的正确选择

VII. The Correct Choice for Human Rights Protection

结束语

Concluding Remarks

前　言

Foreword

　　人口过快增长是当今世界面临的一个十分严重的问题。时间每过一分钟，地球人口净增160人。联合国人口基金为此向国际社会敲响警钟：如不立即采取坚决行动控制人口，保持消费与发展的平衡，世界人口在下世纪中叶将达到125亿，人类也将无法得到持续发展。人口问题在全球范围出现，成为许多国家和地区面临的严重挑战。象中国这样人口众多的发展中国家，人口问题的挑战不仅关系到中华民族的生存和发展，也关系到人类社会的稳定和繁荣。中国是怎样迎接这一挑战的?中国为什么要作出计划生育的战略决策?在进行计划生育过程中采取什么政策和措施?效果又如何?我们将对此作出介绍和回答。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

Excessive population growth is an extremely serious problem facing the contemporary world. Each minute, the earth's population is increased by 160 people. In face of this problem, the UN Population Fund sounded a warning to the international community: Lacking prompt and determined moves to control population and maintain a balance between consumption and development, the world population would be 12.5 billion people by the middle of the next century and humanity be unable to develop further.

The global emergence of the population question poses a serious challenge to many countries and regions. For a populous developing country like China the challenge posed by the population question not only has a bearing on the survival and development of the Chinese nation but also affects the stability and prosperity of all human society.

How is China taking up the challenge to deal with this problem? Why has China adopted the strategic policy of carrying out family planning? What policies and measures has it taken to implement its family planning programme and what results has it achieved? We shall introduce the problem and provide some answers.

一、符合国情的战略决策

I. A Strategic Policy That Suits National Conditions

　　人口问题是关系中华民族生存与发展，关系中国现代化建设兴衰成败，关系人口与经济、社会、资源、环境能否相互协调和持续发展的重大问题。中国政府把实行计划生育，控制人口增长，提高人口素质确定为一项基本国策，是从国家富强、民族昌盛、人民幸福出发所作出的必然选择。

The population problem is an important question that touches upon the survival and development of the Chinese nation, the success or failure of China's modernization drive as well as the coordinated and sustained development between the population on one hand, and the economy, society, resources and environment on the other. It is a natural choice that the Chinese government has made to implement family planning, control population growth and improve the life quality of the population a basic state policy on the basis of a wish to make the state strong and powerful, the nation prosperous and the people happy.

　　中华人民共和国成立后，由于社会安定，生产发展和医疗卫生条件的改善，人民安居乐业，死亡率大幅度下降，人口迅速增长，人口再生产进入高出生、低死亡、高增长类型。应该指出，这是当时必然会出现的现象。问题是中国也同当时的国际社会未对全球人口膨胀迅速作出反映一样，错过了在建国后第一次人口出生高峰期间解决人口过快增长问题的时机。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, due to the stability of the society, the development of production and the improvement of medical and health care conditions, the people lived and worked in peace and happiness. The death rate was reduced markedly, while the population increased rapidly, thus the situation then was characterized by more births, fewer deaths and high growth. It should be pointed out that this was an inevitable phenomenon at that time. But, just as the international community then was not responding promptly to the question of swelling global population, China lost the chance to solve the problem of over-rapid population growth in the first birth peak period after the founding of New China.

　　六十年代，中国进入了新中国建立后第二次人口出生高峰。从1962年至1972年，中国年平均出生人口2669万，累计出生了3亿。1969年中国人口突破了8亿。从六十年代开始人口与经济、社会、资源、环境之间的矛盾逐渐显露出来。鉴于这种情况，中国政府曾号召计划生育，提倡使用避孕药具。但是由于对人口问题的严重性认识仍不够深刻，政府没有制定明确的人口政策，因此计划生育没有能够在全国有效地推行。

In the 1960s, China's population entered its second peak birth period. From 1962 to 1972, the annual number of births in China averaged 26.69 million, totalling 300 million. In 1969, China's population exceeded 800 million. Beginning from the 1960s, the contradiction between the population on one hand, and the economy, society, resources and environment on the other had become gradually apparent. In view of the situation, the Chinese government issued a call for family planning and advocated the use of contraceptives. However, as there was still the lack of a deep understanding of the seriousness of the population problem and the government still had not worked out a clear population policy, family planning was not effectively carried out throughout the country.

　　从七十年代初开始，中国政府越来越深刻地认识到人口增长过快对经济、社会发展不利，决定在全国城乡大力推行计划生育，并将人口发展计划纳入国民经济与社会发展规划，计划生育工作进入了一个新的发展阶段。

From the early 1970s, the Chinese government had become increasingly deeply aware that the over-rapid growth of population was unfavourable to economic and social development and decided to energetically carry out family planning in both urban and rural areas and integrated the plan for population development into the plan of national economic and social development. Consequently, family planning work entered a new phase of development.

　　七十年代末，中国改革开放的总设计师邓小平在总结建国以来社会主义建设经验教训的基础上，深刻分析了中国的基本国情，指出要使中国实现四个现代化，必须考虑中国国家大、底子薄、人口多、耕地少的特点，揭示了人口与经济、社会、资源、环境必须协调发展的客观要求。邓小平在解决中国人口问题上主要的贡献是，把人口问题放到国民经济与社会发展的全局中来考察和处理，明确提出中国的人口政策是带有战略性的重大政策。根据邓小平的这一思想，中国政府把实行计划生育，控制人口数量，提高人口素质确定为一项基本国策，并在《中华人民共和国宪法》中作了明确规定，确立了计划生育工作在中国经济和社会发展全局中的重要地位。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

At the end of the 1970s, Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of China's reform and opening to the outside world, made an in-depth analysis of China's basic national conditions on the basis of the experience and lessons of socialist construction since the founding of the People's Republic, pointing out that, to accomplish the goal of the four modernizations in China, it was imperative to take into consideration the basic features of the Chinese environment, that is, the vast scale of the country, its weak foundation, its massive population and the low ratio of cultivated land, and this demonstrated the objective need for the development of population to be coordinated with the development of the economy, society, resources and environment. The major contribution Deng Xiaoping made to the solution of China's population problem is: To study and deal with the population problem in the overall context of the national economic and social development and clearly point out that China's population policy is an important policy of strategic significance. In accordance with Deng Xiaoping's thinking, the Chinese government has made it a basic state policy to carry out family planning and population control and to improve the life quality of the population, and has clearly incorporated it in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, thus establishing the important position of family planning programme in China's overall task of national economic and social development.

　　1995年2月15日，中国总人口已达到12亿。近几年来，每年的出生人数都在2100万左右，每年净增人口1400万左右。如此庞大的人口总量和年人口增长量，对于中国这样一个底子薄、耕地少、经济文化水平比较落后和地区之间发展不平衡的国家来说，是一个沉重的负担。中国人口过多的不利影响已经渗透到社会经济生活的各个方面，中国在经济和社会发展中遇到的许多困难，都与它有直接的关系。

By February 15, 1995, China's population had reached 1.2 billion. Over the past few years, the annual births have averaged about 21 million, with a net annual increase of 14 million. Such massive total population and annual population growth constitutes a heavy burden for China, a country that has a weak foundation and little cultivated land, whose economic and cultural level is rather backward and where development is regionally imbalanced. The negative impact of China's overabundance of population has permeated all aspects of social and economic life; in fact, many difficulties China has encountered in its economic and social development are directly related to the problem of population.

　　中国广袤领土上的适合人们居住和从事经济活动的空间有限，人口分布极不平衡。中国的平原和丘陵面积分别占总土地面积的12.0%和9.9%，合计只有21.9%，而盆地、山地和高原的比例分别为18.8%、33.3%和26.0%，合计达78.1%。中国的不少山地、高原、丘陵和盆地是不适宜人居住的。中国适宜居住的湿润、半湿润地区只占47%；而干旱地区和半干旱地区则占53%。目前，中国94%的人口聚居在占全国总面积46%的东部，特别是自然环境较好、经济较发达的东南部地区。国家统计局利用1982年第三次人口普查数据测算出，中国有20.3%的人口居住在海拔500米以上的地区。与之比较，世界平均只有10%的人口居住在海拔400米以上的地方。中国目前尚有7000万贫困人口，其中大部分居住于地理环境比较恶劣的西部地区。显而易见，人口的贫困与他们所处的生存条件较差有着密切的关系。除此之外，中国的人均林地、草地、淡水资源分别只及世界平均水平的九分之一、三分之一和四分之一。“民以食为天”，解决12亿人口的吃饭问题，是对中国的巨大挑战。目前，中国耕地面积只有国土的十分之一，与之比较，印度耕地虽占国土的55%，人均耕地是中国的2倍；美国耕地虽只占国土的20%，但人均耕地是中国的9倍。中国的农业，特别是粮食生产面临最大的压力，就是人口不断增加，耕地不断减少。中国同美国、印度都是世界上粮食生产大国，在耕地面积小于美国、印度的条件下，中国的粮食产量却位居世界第一，粮食单产大大高于世界平均水平，但由于中国的人口数量几乎相当于美国的5倍，人均粮食占有量却不足美国的四分之一。1993年，中国虽然粮食生产获得丰收，但人均占有量只有387.3公斤。预测表明，由于人口规模将继续扩大，中国的人均粮食将长期维持在人均原粮不到400公斤的低水平上。如果中国不能有效地遏制人口的过快增长，不能缓解人口增长对土地、森林和水资源等构成的巨大压力，那么未来几十年后的生态和环境恶化将不可避免，这无疑会深深危及绝大多数中国人起码的生存条件和社会经济的可持续发展。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

Over the vast territory of China, the space suited for people to live and engage in economic activities is limited and population distribution is extremely uneven. Plains and hilly land account for 12.0 percent and 9.9 percent respectively of China's total land area, totalling only 21.9 percent, while basins, mountains and plateaus account for 18.8 percent, 33.3 percent and 26.0 percent each, adding up to 78.1 percent. Many of the mountain, plateau, hilly and basin areas are unsuited for living. China's humid and semi-humid areas, appropriate for living, account for only 47 percent of the total land mass, while the arid and semi-arid areas account for 53 percent. Now, 94 percent of China's population live in the eastern part, which accounts for 46 percent of the country's territory, particularly in the southeastern region where the natural environment is better and the economy is relatively developed. The State Statistical Bureau estimates, on the basis of data collected in the third national census in 1982, that 20.3 percent of China's population live in areas over 500 metres above sea level, whereas in the world's population as a whole, only 10 percent live in areas over 400 metres above sea level. At present, there are still 70 million people in China living below the poverty level, of which the majority live in the western region where the geographic environment is harsher. Obviously, the poverty of the population is closely related to their poor living conditions. Besides this, China's per-capita average of forested land, grassland and freshwater resources amounts to only one-ninth, one-third and one-fourth of the respective world averages. "Food is the first necessity of the people." To solve the problem of feeding a population of 1.2 billion is a big challenge to China. Now, cultivated area in China accounts for only onetenth of its territory. In contrast, cultivated land in India accounts for 55 percent of its territory, with a per-capita average twice that of China. Although cultivated land in the United States makes up for only 20 percent of its territory, still its per-capita average is nine times that of China. The greatest pressure on China's agriculture, particularly grain production, is the continuous growth of the population and incessant shrinkage of the cultivated land. The United States and India, as well as China, are all major grain-producing nations in the world. Though its cultivated land is less than the United States and India, China ranks the first in the world in terms of grain output; its per-unit grain yield is much higher than the world average. But, as China's population is almost five times that of the United States, its per-capita share of grain is less than one-fourth of the latter. In 1993, despite a bumper harvest witnessed in China's grain production, the per-capita share of grain was only 387.3 kilogrammes. Forecasts show that China's per-capita share of grain will remain at the low level of less than 400 kilogrammes of crude grain for a long time due to the continued growth of the population size in the future. If China fails to effectively check the over-rapid growth of the population and alleviate the great pressure wrought by the population growth on cultivated land, forests and water resources, an ecological and environmental deterioration will become inevitable in the coming decades, profoundly endangering the minimum living conditions of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people as well as the sustainable development of their society and economy.

　　中国劳动力充裕固然有利于发展的一面，但在资金短缺、资源相对不足的条件下，解决不断增长的劳动力就业问题是相当困难的。目前，全国每年有近2000万青年人进入劳动年龄，绝大部分人需要就业。中国农村剩余劳动力已经达到1.2亿人，到2000年，农村剩余劳动力将超过2亿。虽然国家采取多种措施广开就业门路，并已取得可喜成效，但还有相当多的人口处于待业或隐性失业状态。只有在大力发展经济，创造新的就业机会的同时，坚决控制人口增长，才能使劳动力增长和经济发展对劳动力的需求相适应。改革开放以来，尽管中国的经济发展速度较快，综合国力不断提高，国民生产总值已跃居世界前列，但由于人口多，中国的人均国民生产总值仍居世界后列，低于发展中国家的平均水平。由于人口增长过快，国家积累相对减少，能够用于教育、医疗、保健等社会事业的资金有限，要进一步提高人民的文化素质和健康水平，特别是广大农村人口和贫困地区人口的素质，困难不少。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

On one hand, China's abundant labour force is of course conducive to development. On the other, however, it will be considerably difficult to tackle the problem of employment of a continuously growing labour force under the shortage of funds and the relative insufficiency of resources. Now, nearly 20 million young people reach working age in China every year, and most of them need jobs. The surplus labour force in China's rural areas has reached 120 million, and by the year 2000 the rural surplus labour force will exceed the 200 million mark. Although the state has adopted various measures to open up channels for employment and satisfactory results have been achieved, there are still considerably large amounts of people who are in the plight of job-waiting or recessive unemployment. Only by resolutely controlling the population growth while making energetic efforts to develop the economy and create new employment opportunities can it be possible to make the growth of the work force fall in step with the demand of the economic development for the work force. Despite the rapid pace of economic development, continuous improvements in China's overall national strength, and the leap of China to the world's front rank in gross national product since the adoption of reform and opening to the outside world, the country's per-capita gross national product still lags behind in the world and remains lower than the average level of the developing countries because of its huge population. Owing to the excessively rapid population growth, the state's accumulation has become relatively less, funds that can be invested in educational, medical and health care and other social services are limited, and there are significant difficulties in further improving the people's cultural quality and health level, particularly the life quality of the massive rural population and the population living in areas haunted by poverty.

　　中国政府正是为了实现持续的经济增长和可持续发展，满足全体人民日益增长的物质和文化需要，保证当代及子孙后代人民的根本利益和长远利益，而选择了实行计划生育这一战略决策。事实已经并将继续证明，在大力发展经济的同时，全面推行计划生育，是中国20世纪下半叶及以后一项利在当代、功在千秋的正确决策。

It is precisely for bringing about a sustained economic growth and sustainable development, satisfying the daily increasing material and cultural demands of the whole people, and guaranteeing the fundamental and long-term interests of the current generation and their posterity, that the Chinese government has chosen the strategic policy of family planning. Facts have proved and will continue to prove that, while making energetic efforts to develop the economy, the comprehensive promotion of family planning was the correct policy decision, taken in China since the latter half of the 20th century, which bring benefits to the present and constitutes a meritorious service for the future.

二、造福于民的社会事业

II. A Social Undertaking That Benefits the People

　　中国的改革开放和经济建设的发展，为实行计划生育创造了良好的社会经济环境，而实行计划生育所取得的成就，又为经济的持续增长、人民生活水平的提高和社会的全面进步创造了有利的人口环境。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

China's reform and opening to the outside world as well as its economic development have created a favourable socioeconomic environment for family planning, while the achievements of family planning have in turn created a favourable population environment for the continuous development of the economy, the improvement of the people's living standards as well as the overall progress of society.

　　一、计划生育有效地抑制了中国人口增长过快的势头。

1. Family planning has effectively checked the trend of over-rapid population growth.    

    从中华人民共和国成立到1964年的15年间，中国人口从5亿增加到7亿，每增加1亿人口平均需要7.5年的时间。从1964年到1974年，是中国人口高速增长的时间，10年内人口由7亿增加到9亿，每增加1亿人口的时间缩短为5年；1973年，中国在全国范围内实行计划生育，从1973年到1995年2月，中国人口由9亿增加到12亿，每增加1亿人口所需时间，又延长到7年左右。进入九十年代以来，中国虽然处于1949年后第三次人口出生高峰期，20—29岁生育旺盛期的妇女人数平均每年超过1亿人。如此庞大的生育人群，其生育潜力是巨大的。但是，由于中国现行的人口与计划生育方案和政策得到了人民的理解和支持，随着中国经济、社会的发展，人们的生育水平不断下降，有效地抑制了人口过快增长的势头。1994年与1970年相比，人口出生率由33.43‰下降到17.70‰，人口自然增长率从25.83‰下降到11.21‰，妇女总和生育率从5.81下降到2左右。目前，中国城市人口已基本实现了向低出生、低死亡、低增长的人口再生产类型的转变，农村人口正处于这一转变过程中。根据联合国提供的资料，中国的人口增长率已明显低于世界其它发展中国家的平均水平。据有关专家推算，如果中国不实行计划生育，至今仍保持七十年代初期的出生水平，现在中国人口很可能已经超过15亿。20多年来，中国实行计划生育，创造了有利于改革开放与社会经济发展和保障中国生存与发展的人口条件。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

In the 15 years from the founding of the People's Republic to 1964, China's population increased from 500 million to 700 million, and on average 7.5 years were needed for the population to increase by 100 million. The 1964-74 period was one of high-speed growth where China's population increased from 700 million to 900 million in ten years, and the time needed for the population to increase by 100 million was shortened to five years. In 1973, China began to promote family planning throughout the country. China's population increased from 900 million to 1.2 billion in the period from 1973 to February 1995, and the time needed for the population to increase by 100 million was again lengthened to around seven years. China has been through the third post-1949 peak period of births from the beginning of the 1990s, the community of women in their prime of fertility (aged 20 to 29) has exceeded 100 million each year on average, and such a huge child-bearing community has a great birth potential still. But, because China's current population and family planning programmes and policies have won understanding and support from the people, the fertility level of the population has steadily reduced and the trend of overrapid population growth has been effectively checked along with the country's economic and social development. Compared with 1970, in 1994 the birth rate dropped from 33.43 per thousand to 17.7 per thousand; the natural growth rate, from 25.83 per thousand to 11.21 per thousand; and the total fertility rate of women, from 5.81 to around 2. Now, China's urban population has basically accomplished the change-over to the population reproduction pattern characterized by low birth rate, low death rate and low growth; and the rural population is currently in this process of change-over. According to statistics supplied by the United Nations, China's population growth rate has already been markedly lower than the average level of other developing countries. According to calculation by experts, if China had not implemented family planning but had all along kept the birth rate at the level of the early 1970s, its population would possibly have passed the 1.5 billion mark by now. Over the past two decades and more, China's promotion of family planning has created a population environment conducive to reform and opening to the outside world and socioeconomic development as well as the population conditions for safeguarding the survival and development of China.

　　二、计划生育促进了人民群众婚姻、生育、家庭现念的转变。

2. Family planning has promoted the change of people's concepts regarding marriage, birth and family.    

    自中国实行计划生育以来，随着改革开放和社会经济的发展，人们的婚姻、生育、家庭观念已经和正在发生着深刻的变化，传统的“早婚早育”、“多子多福”、“重男轻女”等观念正在为越来越多的育龄群众所摈弃；晚婚晚育、少生优生，男孩、女孩都一样，建立幸福、美满、和谐的小家庭，追求现代、科学、文化生活方式，已经成为不可阻遏的时代潮流。妇女早婚比例下降，平均初婚年龄提高。1992年，早于20周岁初婚妇女占初婚妇女总数的比例下降到12.9%。1970年妇女平均初婚年龄为20.2岁；1993年为22.67岁，提高了2.47岁。家庭规模逐渐缩小，核心家庭正在成为当代中国家庭的主要形式。据中国第四次人口普查，1990年平均家庭规模为3.96人，比1971年的4.84人减少了0.88人。家庭规模缩小的主要原因是生育子女数量的减少。1993年与1970年相比，在当年出生的孩子中，一孩率、二孩率分别由20.7%和17.1%上升为61.3%和27.5%，多孩率则由62.2%下降到11.2%。到1994年，全国累计有4676万对夫妇自愿终身生育一个孩子，占已婚育龄妇女总数的20.3%。在中国现有经济发展水平和人民生活条件下，家庭规模的缩小和抚养子女人数的减少，显然大大减轻了家庭的经济负担和家务负担，提高了家庭的生活质量。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

Since the implementation of the policy of family planning in China, profound changes have been taking place in people's concepts of marriage, birth and family along with the reform and opening to the outside world as well as socio-economic development; the traditional ideas of "early marriage and early births," "more children, greater happiness," and "looking up on men and down on women" are being discarded by more and more people at the child-bearing ages. Late marriage and late births, fewer and healthier births, viewing male and female children as the same, establishing happy, perfect and harmonious small families and seeking a modern, scientific and civilized way of life have become an irresistible trend of the times. The rate of early marriage for women has come down and their average age at first marriage has gone up. In 1992, the proportion of women entering first marriage before the age of 20 dropped to 12.9 percent of the total number of firstmarriage women. In 1970, women's average age at first marriage was 20.2 years, while in 1993 it was 22.67 years, up 2.47 years. The family size has become gradually smaller and nucleus family is becoming the major form of modern Chinese families. According to China's fourth national census, the average size of families in 1990 was 3.96 persons, 0.88 person less than the 4.84 persons in 1971. The major reason for the reduction of family size is a reduction in the number of births. Compared with 1970, of the babies born in 1993 the first-birth rate and second-birth rate increased from 20.7 percent and 17.1 percent to 61.3 percent and 27.5 percent respectively, and the multiple-birth rate dropped from 62.2 percent to 11.2 percent. By 1994, a total of 46.76 million couples had volunteered to give birth to only one child throughout the country, accounting for 20.3 percent of the total married women at child-bearing age. At the current level of economic development and living standards in China, the reduction of family size and fewer children to support have obviously reduced the economic burden and the burden of family chores on the families and improved their quality of life.

　　三、计划生育为中国经济的发展和人民生活水平的提高创造了有利条件。

3. Family planning has created favourable conditions for the development of China's economy and the improvement of people's living standards.    

    中国大力开展计划生育，力图使人口增长速度大大低于国民生产总值的增长速度，从而逐步提高人均水平。近十几年来，中国经济持续发展，人民生活日益改善。除了改革开放等因素外，也得益于计划生育。1952年至1978年，中国国内生产总值增长3.7倍，但人均国内生产总值仅增长了1.8倍。1978年至1994年，中国在坚持改革开放、大力发展经济的同时，坚持做好计划生育工作，国内生产总值增长了3.2倍，人均国内生产总值增长了2.4倍。同期，随着人民生活质量和购买力的提高，中国消费品市场扩大了12.7倍，消费品零售总额平均年递增17.2%。1994年，中国社会消费品零售总额为16053亿元，中国已成为世界上最有潜力的市场。与1978年相比，中国人民的生活水平明显提高，城镇居民人均生活费收入增加9倍，平均每年递增15.5%；农村居民家庭人均纯收入增加8倍，平均每年递增14.8%。中国城镇人均住房面积由3.6平方米增加到7.5平方米，农村人均居住面积由8.1平方米增加到20.8平方米。绝大多数家庭的吃、穿、用、住等基本生活需要得到满足。电视机、收录机、电冰箱、洗衣机等耐用消费品的普及率接近中等发达国家水平。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

In vigorously promoting family planning, China strives to make the speed of population growth much lower than the speed of growth in the gross national product, thus gradually raising the per-capita level. A part from the reform and opening to the outside world, family planning has been a factor for the sustained economic development of China and the steady improvement of its people's living standards over the past ten years and more. From 1952 to 1978, China's gross domestic product (GDP) increased 4.7-fold. The per-capita GDP, however, increased by only 2.8-fold. From 1978 to 1994, while upholding reform and opening to the outside world and making great efforts to develop the economy, China persisted in doing a good job in family planning. In this period, the GDP went up 4.2-fold and the per-capita GDP increased 3.4-fold. During the same period, thanks to improvements in the quality of people's lives and the rise in their purchasing power, China's consumer goods market expanded 13.7-fold, and the total retail sales volume of consumer goods increased by an annual average of 17.2 percent. In 1994, the total volume of retail sales of consumer goods in China was 1,605.3 billion yuan. China has become a market with the greatest potential in the world. Compared with 1978, living standards have markedly improved, the urban people's per-capita incomes for living expenses increased 10-fold, at an annual increase of 15.5 percent; the per-capita net incomes for rural families went up 9-fold, at an annual increase of 14.8 percent. In Chinese cities and towns, the per-capita housing increased from 3.6 square metres to 7.5 square metres, and in the rural areas it increased from 8.1 square metres to 20.8 square metres. For the overwhelming majority of families, the basic needs of living, such as food, clothing, daily-use articles and housing, were met. The possession rate of durable goods, such as TV sets, cassette tape recorders, refrigerators and washing machines, approached the level of the moderately developed countries.

　　四、计划生育促进了中国人口素质的提高和人的全面发展。

4. Family planning has promoted the improvement of the quality of the Chinese population in terms of education and health as well as the overall development of the people.

    中国的计划生育，始终包含着控制人口数量和提高人口素质两个方面。在合理控制人口规模的同时，中国政府十分重视发展教育、医疗卫生等各项事业。不断提高人口素质。1949年以前，中国的人口死亡率高达20‰，七十年代末下降到7‰以下。1949年到1990年，人口平均预期寿命从35岁上升到68.55岁，其中男性66.84，女性70.47岁，成为世界上平均预期寿命提高最快的国家之一。中国的卫生基础设施已得到较大改善，全国平均每万人医院床位数从1970年的13.3张增加到1994年的23.6张，每万人专业卫生技术人员数由1970年的17.5人增长到1994年的35人。各种传染病的发病率大幅度下降。全国城乡居民的营养状况有了较大改善，平均每人每日摄取的热量为2600千卡，蛋白质为75克，已达到和接近世界平均水平。妇幼保健事业不断发展，目前中国城乡已基本形成计划生育和妇幼保健服务网络。1990年婴儿死亡率已从建国前的200‰下降到35‰，孕产死亡率为94.7/10万，新生儿计划免疫率达到85%。人民在卫生和健康方面的一些主要指标已经大大领先于同等经济发展水平的国家，正在逐步缩小与发达国家的差距。中国政府把教育作为国家发展的战略重点之一，教育事业得到长足的发展。中国正在有计划、有步骤地实行九年义务教育。1994年，全国各级各类学校在校生已达2.7亿人，学龄儿童入学率达到98.4%，青壮年的文盲率已降到7%，在占全国人口91%的地区中普及了初等教育。大城市和部分发达地区基本普及了初级中等教育。幼儿教育和残疾儿童的特殊教育稳步发展。中等职业技术教育迅速发展，在校生达到844.6万人，占整个高中阶段在校生总数的56%。全国有2亿多农民接受了各类文化知识教育和实用技术教育。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

China's family planning has always included the two aspects of controlling the population size and improving the population quality in terms of education and health. While making efforts to control the population at an appropriate size, the Chinese government has devoted great attention to developing educational, medical and other services in order continuously to improve the quality of the population in terms of education and health. Prior to 1949, the mortality rate was as high as 20 per thousand, while by the end of the 1970s it had dropped to below 7 per thousand. From 1949 to 1990, the life expectancy rose from 35 years to 68.55 years--66.84 years for males and 70.47 years for females, making China a country where the life expectancy increased the most rapidly. Great improvements have been witnessed in the basic facilities for public health in China. Throughout the country, the average number of hospital beds for every 10,000 people increased from 13.3 in 1970 to 23.6 in 1994, and the average number of professional medical workers and technical workers in the field of medicine for every 10,000 people went up from 17.5 in 1970 to 35 in 1994. The incidence of various contagious diseases has markedly dropped. The diet of urban and rural people throughout the country has greatly improved, the per-capita daily calorie intake has reached 2,600 Kcal. and that of protein has reached 75 grammes, having reached or approaching the world average levels. Health care for women and children has continuously expanded. Now, family planning as well as maternity and child care networks have been basically formed in China's urban and rural areas. The mortality rate for babies dropped from 200 per thousand prior to the founding of the People's Republic to 35 per thousand in 1990, the death rate of expectant and new mothers was 94.7 per 100,000, and the rate of planned immunity for new-born babies reached 85 percent. The major indexes of people's medical care and health have already far outstripped countries at the same level of economic development, and the gap with the developed countries is being gradually narrowed.

The Chinese government has taken education as a strategic key for the country's development, and great progress has been made in this field. China is now accomplishing the goal of nine-year compulsory education in a planned and systematic way. In 1994, the enrolment at schools, at various levels and of various kinds throughout the country, already reached 270 million, the schooling rate of school-age children reached 98.4 percent, the illiteracy rate of young and middle-aged people dropped to 7 percent, primary education was made universal in areas with 91 percent of the country's population, the major cities and some of the developed regions basically popularized junior middle school education, and infant education as well as the special education for handicapped children developed steadily. Secondary vocational and technical education developed quickly, and enrolment has reached 8.446 million, accounting for 56 percent of the total number of students at the level of senior middle school. Countrywide, over 200 million farmers have received various kinds of education in general knowledge and practical skills.

　　五、计划生育进一步解放了妇女生产力有利于妇女地位的改善和提高。

5. Family planning has further liberated the female productive forces and helped improve the status of women.

    中国实行计划生育，使妇女摆脱了婚后频繁生育的状况和繁重的家庭负担，进一步解放和发展了妇女中蕴藏的社会生产力，使她们有更多的机会学习科学文化知识，参与经济和社会发展活动，从而极大地推动了中国妇女经济、社会和家庭地位的提高。妇女就业率不断提高，就业领域不断扩大。到1992年底，中国女职工人数已达5600万人，占全部职工总数的38%，比1985年的4500万人，增长24.1%。1979年至1988年，城镇妇女就业增长率一直高于男性，年平均增长率为4.9%，比全国职工队伍的年平均增长率高出1.27个百分点。中国妇女的绝大多数在农村，是中国农业生产和多种经营的主力军。她们是实行计划生育最主要的受益人口群体。1989年，中国在农村发起的“双学双比”(学文化、学技术，比成绩、比贡献)活动，吸引了1.2亿农村妇女参加，其中9000多万人接受了实用技术培训，有1.5万多人获得省以上先进女能手称号，51万多人被评为农民技术员，出现了106.7万个以妇女为主的科技示范户。中国农村中约有4000万妇女在乡镇企业就业，占乡镇企业从业人员总数的47%。实行计划生育使妇女有更多受教育的机会，有利于提高妇女的文化素质。目前，中国城市成年女性平均上学年数是9.97年，其中高中及其以上者占56.3%，初中33.3%，小学8.3%，文盲半文盲仅占2.1%；而其母亲一代高中以上者仅占9.1%，初中11.1%，小学24.5%，文盲半文盲为55.3%。农村成年女性目前文化程度达到高中及其以上者为8.9%，初中26.6%，小学27.9%，文盲半文盲为36.6%；而其母亲一代高中以上者仅占0.5%，初中1.9%，小学9.0%，文盲半文盲高达88.6%。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

Family planning in China has extricated women from frequent births after marriage and the heavy family burden, further liberated and expanded the social productive forces latent in women, and provided them with more opportunities to learn science and general knowledge and take part in economic and social development activities, hence greatly promoted the improvement of the Chinese women's status in economic and social affairs as well as in their families.

The employment rate of women has steadily increased and sphere of employment has continuously expanded. By the end of 1992, the number of female staff and workers had reached 56 million in China, accounting for 38 percent of the national total of staff and workers and representing a 24.1 percent increase over the 45 million in 1985. In the 1979-88 period, the growth rate of employment for urban women had always been higher than that for men, with the average annual increase standing at 4.9 percent, 1.27 percentage point higher than the average annual increase of all staff and workers countrywide. The overwhelming majority of Chinese women are located in the countryside, and they are the major force of the agricultural production and diversified economy in the country. They are that part of the population to benefit most from the policy of family planning. In 1989, a move of "double learnings" (of general knowledge and techniques) and "double competitions" (in achievements and contributions) was launched in China's rural areas, appealing to 120 million rural women. Of this total, more than 90 million received training in practical techniques, over 15,000 were cited as model women workers at and above the provincial level, more than 510,000 were given the title of farmer technician, and 1.067 million scientific and technological demonstration households, with women as the major body, came to the fore. In China's rural areas, some 40 million women are employed in township enterprises, accounting for 47 percent of the total work force in these enterprises.

Family planning has provided women with more opportunities to receive education and is conducive to raising their educational qualities. At present, the average schooling for adult women in China's urban areas totals 9.97 years. Of these women, those who have received education of senior middle school or higher account for 56.3 percent; those who have received junior middle school education account for 33.3 percent; those who have received primary school education account for 8.3 percent; and those who are illiterate and semi-illiterate account for only 2.1 percent. For the previous generation, however, those with senior middle school education and higher account for only 9.1 percent; those with junior middle school education, 11.1 percent; those with primary school education, 24.5 percent; and illiterates and semi-illiterates, 55.3 percent. For adult women in the rural areas, those with senior middle school education or higher make up 8.9 percent; those with junior middle school education, 26.6 percent; those with primary school education, 27.9 percent; and illiterates and semi-illiterates, 36.6 percent. For the previous generation, those with senior middle school education or higher account for only 0.5 percent; those with junior middle school education, 1.9 percent; those with primary school education, 9.0 percent; and illiterates and semi-illiterates, 88.6 percent.

　　六、计划生育促进了中国农村消除贫困的进程。

6. Family planning has accelerated the process of eradicating poverty in rural China.

    在中国的贫困地区，经济、文化落后与过多生育往往互为因果。在贫困地区实行计划生育，控制人口数量，提高人口素质，是中国政府进行扶贫开发，消除贫困的一项重要举措。1978年以来，国家采取了一系列措施，使没有完全解决温饱的人口从2.5亿人减少到1995年的7000万人。中国政府把解决贫困人口问题与计划生育结合起来，使许多家庭从“越穷越生，越生越穷”的不良循环中解脱出来，收到了显著效果。在已经脱贫的人口中，实行计划生育的农户往往占有明显的优势。计划生育在中国社会所产生的积极影响是广泛而又深远的。随着时间的推移，计划生育造福于民、惠及子孙后代的功效，必将进一步显现出来。

In China's poor areas, economic and cultural backwardness and too many births often interact as both cause and effect. The Chinese government has taken an important step in giving support to the development of poor areas to alleviate poverty by promoting family planning, holding population growth under control, and raising the life quality of the population in those areas. Since 1978, the state has adopted a series of measures to make those living below the poverty line drop from 250 million to 70 million in 1995. The Chinese government has combined the solution of the problem of the portion of society living under the poverty level with family planning to free families from the vicious cycle of "the poorer they are, the more children they give birth to, and the more children they give birth to, the poorer they become." In this respect, marked achievements have been obtained. In the community that have extricated themselves from poverty, farming households that have implemented family planning are often in a clearly advantageous position.

The positive impact produced by family planning on Chinese society is wide and profound. With the passing of time, the benefits of family planning, for the people and for posterity, are bound to be more apparent.

三、国家指导与群众自愿相结合

III. Combination of State Guidance with Voluntary Participation by the Masses

　　中国地广人多，地区之间、城乡之间、民族之间的差异较大，推行计划生育是一项十分复杂的工作。中国政府根据国情制定人口和计划生育政策、人口控制目标时，既考虑到国家社会经济发展的需要和国家的长远利益，也考虑到不同地区、不同民族、不同社会阶层的实际情况和群众的意愿与接受能力，把国家指导与群众自愿结合起来。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

Due to its vast territory, large population and the great differences between regions, urban and rural areas and ethnic groups, the promotion of family planning in China is a highly complicated task. When working out the policies of population and family planning, and the objectives of population control in accordance with the actual conditions in the country, the Chinese government took into consideration the needs of the social and economic development of the state and its longrange interests, as well as the actual conditions of different regions, ethnic groups and social strata, the people's wishes and attitudes, to combine state guidance with voluntary participation by the masses.

　　国家指导与群众自愿相结合，是中国实行计划生育始终坚持的一条重要原则，也是中国计划生育事业取得成功的根本保证。国家指导主要表现在，中央和地方政府根据国情民意并通过立法程序，制定控制人口增长、提高人口素质、优化人口结构的政策法规；制定宏观人口发展计划，并将其纳入国民经济和社会发展的总体规划之中；把人口与计划生育工作列入政府的重要议事日程，组织协调各有关部门和群众团体制定并实施人口与计划生育方案，提供必要的资金和条件，保证人口与计划生育事业的需要；通过向全民进行广泛深入的宣传教育，为所有夫妇和个人提供生殖保健、避孕节育、优生优育等方面的指导和服务，以满足所有夫妇和个人合理安排家庭生育计划的需求。

The combination of state guidance with voluntary participation is an important principle China has always followed since the implementation of the family planning policy, and is the fundamental guarantee of success for the family planning programme as well. The main manifestations of state guidance include: The central and local governments, in accordance with the national conditions and people's will, and through legislative procedures, have formulated the policies, laws and regulations concerning the control of population growth, the improvement of the life quality of population and the optimization of the population structure; worked out the macro population development plan, and integrated it in the overall plan for national economic and social development; placed population control and family planning in the government's major agenda, organized and coordinated all relevant departments and mass organizations to draw up and implement the programmes on population and family planning, and provided necessary funds and conditions to guarantee the needs of both causes; and, through extensive and in-depth publicity and education all over the country, provided guidance and services to all couples and individuals in terms of reproductive health care, contraception and birth control, healthy child birth and rearing to help them in proper arrangement of family planning.

　　群众自愿主要表现在，所有夫妇和个人在国家的有关政策和法规的指导下，实行家庭生育计划的权利得到保护和尊重。夫妇和个人在行使其生育权利时，要考虑到对国家和社区的责任和义务，以及家庭和每个成员的健康和幸福。夫妇和个人在获得有效的信息、咨询和服务的基础上，根据其年龄、健康、工作以及家庭经济状况，负责任地、有计划地安排怀孕和生育，并选择适宜的避孕节育方法，以生育健康的孩子，建立文明、幸福的家庭。

Voluntary participation is mainly manifested in the fact that, under the guidance of the state's relevant policies and legislation, the right of all couples and individuals to carry out family planning is protected and respected. While exercising their right of child bearing, couples and individuals must take into account their responsibilities and duties to the state and community, and the health and happiness of the family and all its members. On the basis of effective information, advice and services and in accordance with the age, health, work and family economic conditions, couples and individuals can arrange for pregnancy and child bearing in a responsible and planned way, and select proper contraceptive methods so as to have healthy children and happy, progressive families.

　　制定符合国情、体现分类指导的计划生育政策，是实行国家指导的重要组成部分。中国现行的计划生育政策的主要内容是：提倡晚婚晚育，少生优生；提倡一对夫妇生育一个孩子。农村中确有困难的夫妇间隔几年以后可以生育第二个孩子。少数民族也要实行计划生育，具体要求和做法由各自治区或所在省决定。计划生育政策在城乡之间、汉族和少数民族之间要求有所差别，即农村宽于城市，少数民族宽于汉族。各省(区、市)根据国家的政策，结合本地区的实际情况，制定相应的政策规定，并通过法律程序，形成地方性法规。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

A family planning policy that conforms to the state's actual conditions and embodies classified guidance is an important component part of exercising state guidance. The main contents of the current family planning policy in China are: Advocating delayed marriage and delayed child bearing, fewer and healthier births; and advocating one child for one couple. Some rural couples with actual difficulties are allowed to give birth to a second child a few years after the birth of the first child. The national minorities are also required to practise family planning, and concrete demands and approaches to the policy are decided by each autonomous region or the province in which the national minorities live. There are practical differences in the family planning policy between urban and rural areas, and between the Han and the ethnic minorities, i.e., the policy for rural areas is more flexible than for urban areas; for national minorities more flexible than for the Han people. Each province (autonomous region or municipality) will formulate the corresponding policy and regulations in accordance with the state's policy and the actual local conditions and form its local legislation through legal procedures.

　　提倡一对夫妇生育一个孩子，是中国在特定的历史条件下为了缓解严峻的人口形势而作出的必要抉择。提倡一对夫妇生育一个孩子，决不意味着实行“一孩化”，而是在鼓励夫妇生育一个孩子的同时，有计划地安排确有困难的、要求生育第二个孩子的夫妇生育第二个孩子。在计划生育起步较早的中国城镇，由于经济、文化、教育、卫生和社会保障等各方面的条件相对较好，因此，人们比较乐于接受小家庭模式，绝大多数育龄夫妇都响应政府的号召，自愿只生育一个孩子。1990年，全国城镇非农业人口的妇女总和生育率已降到1.26，比全国平均水平低1.05。农村妇女总和生育率为2.8。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

One child for one couple is a necessary choice made under China's special historical conditions to alleviate the grim population situation. One child for one couple does not mean to "have one child" under all circumstances, but rather, while encouraging couples to have only one child, to plan arrangements for couples who have real difficulties and need to have a second child to do so. In China's cities and towns where family planning was introduced earlier and the economic, cultural, educational, public health and social security conditions are better, the overwhelming majority of couples of child-bearing age who are pleased with a small family have responded to the government's call and volunteered to have only one child. In 1990, of the non-agricultural population in China's urban localities, the total fertility rate of women dropped to 1.26, or 1.05 lower than the nation's average figure. In the countryside, the total fertility birth rate of women was 2.8.

　　中国是一个多民族的国家，少数民族人口约占全国总人口的8%。为了提高少数民族地区的经济文化水平和人口素质，从八十年代初开始，除西藏和人口稀少的民族地区外，中国政府在少数民族地区也提倡计划生育，具体政策由民族自治地区和有关省、自治区根据当地实际情况决定。一般是在农牧民中提倡一对夫妇生育两个孩子，对部分确有困难的农、牧民还可以放宽。建国以来，少数民族的人口增长速度不仅高于解放前，而且高于同期汉族的人口增长速度，总人口由1953年的3500万增加到1990年的9132万。在少数民族地区提倡实行计划生育以后，从1982年至1990年，少数民族人口增长了35.81%，比同期汉族人口增长水平高2.27倍。

China is a multi-ethnic country, the population of the national minorities making up about 8 percent of the country's total. To raise the economic and educational levels of the national minority areas and improve the life quality of the population, since the early 1980s the Chinese government has also advocated family planning in the areas inhabited by national minorities, except for Tibet and sparsely populated minority areas. The concrete policies are worked out by the national minority autonomous areas and the relevant provinces and autonomous regions according to specific local conditions. In general, a couple in agricultural and pastoral areas is allowed to have two children; and a more flexible policy is adopted to farmers and herdsmen with actual difficulties. Since the founding of New China, the population growth rate of the national minorities has been not only higher than that before Liberation, but also higher than that of the Han people in the corresponding period. The total population of the national minorities increased from 35 million in 1953 to 91.32 million in 1990. Between 1982 and 1990 after the practice of family planning in the areas inhabited by minority people, the population of the national minorities increased by 35.81 percent, or 3.27 times the growth of the Han population in the same period.

　　国家对西藏地区没有提出计划生育的具体要求。1985年，西藏自治区人民政府根据西藏人口发展的实际情况，开始在藏族干部、职工中提倡计划生育，鼓励一对夫妇自愿有间隔地生育两个孩子。而在广大农、牧民群众中主要是开展生育知识的宣传教育，提倡优生优育，改善妇幼保健条件，为自愿节育者提供避孕药具和节育技术服务；对农、牧民生育子女人数，政策上从未作过任何限制。据1990年第四次全国人口普查，西藏自治区的藏族人口为209.67万，占西藏总人口的95.48%。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

The state has imposed no specific requirements on Tibet in family planning. In 1985, the People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region, in view of the actual population growth there, began to advocate family planning among Tibetan cadres, workers and staff, encouraging each couple to voluntarily space two births at reasonable intervals. Among the broad masses of farmers and herdsmen, the government has mainly educated them in child-bearing knowledge, advocated healthier birth and child-rearing practices, improved health care for women and children, and provided contraceptives and birth control technical services to those who volunteer to practise birth control. No policy restrictions have ever been imposed on the number of births in the agricultural and pastoral areas. The fourth national population census in 1990 revealed that Tibetan people in the Tibet Autonomous Region numbered 2.0967 million, making up 95.48 percent of the total population in Tibet.

　　中国鼓励有生育能力的已婚夫妇在国家指导下自愿选择适宜的避孕措施和方法；对自愿只生育一个孩子的家庭在生活、生产等许多方面给予优惠，帮助他们解决生活、生产中的困难，创造条件使他们尽快致富。对多生育子女的家庭，则征收一定数额的社会抚养费，这样做既是对多生育子女行为的限制，也是多生育子女者给予社会的一种补偿。征收社会抚养费根据地方性法规的规定进行。征收的数额不得影响被征收家庭的基本生活和维持生产经营的需要。所征收的费用用于计划生育事业。

China encourages fertile married couples to select contraceptive methods of their own accord under the guidance of the state; and offers various preferential treatments in daily life, work and many other aspects to families who volunteer to have only one child, helps them to solve difficulties in their lives and work and creates conditions for them to become better off as soon as possible. Assessments are imposed on multi-birth families to enable society to bring up their children. This represents both a restriction on having too many childbirths and an obligation of those responsible to pay a certain compensation to society. Assessments for this purpose are made according to local legislation, but the amounts thus collected must in no way affect the family's basic livelihood and their needs in keeping up production and management. All funds so collected will be used to further family planning.

　　实践证明，中国现行的计划生育政策符合全国人民的根本利益，同时也注意照顾部分群众的意愿的接受能力，因此，得到了全国人民的理解和支持，保证了计划生育工作的顺利开展并取得成功。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

Practice has proved that China's current policy on family planning conforms to the fundamental interests of the people throughout the country; meanwhile it also takes into account part of the people's wishes and attitudes. Hence the policy has won understanding and support from the people of the whole country and has guaranteed the success of the family planning work.

四、赢得人民的共识

IV. Bringing the People to a Common Level of Understanding

　　中国在长期历史中形成的传统生育观念，至今对人们的生育行为仍有着深刻的影响，特别是在农村中不少群众的生育观念和意愿与国家控制人口增长的要求之间还存在着一定的距离。没有人民的觉悟，计划生育很难实施。为此，中国政府高度重视开展宣传教育，启发群众实行计划生育的自觉性，并积极创造有利于人们生育观念转变的经济文化条件。

The traditional child-bearing viewpoints formed in long years of Chinese history still profoundly affect people's attitudes to child-bearing; in particular a certain distance still exists between the viewpoints and will of a number of rural people and the state's demands for controlling population growth. Without the people's awareness, family planning can hardly be practised. Therefore, the Chinese government attaches great importance to educating the people to practise family planning of their own free will and strives to create the economic and cultural conditions for people to change their child-bearing viewpoints.

　　中国结合国情和人口形势进行的计划生育宣传教育，唤起了全社会对控制人口过快增长的紧迫感和责任感。八十年代开始，中国各地普遍开展“算账对比”活动，组织群众对全国和本地区建国以来人口增长与人均耕地、人均粮食、人均收入以及教育、就业、住房、交通等方面的变化，多子女家庭与子女较少的家庭在生活等方面的差别，以及实行计划生育给国家和人民带来的好处，进行算账对比，对于帮助群众认清国情，自觉实行计划生育起到了积极的促进作用。　微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

The publicity and education of family planning conducted in China according to its actual conditions and the population situation have made the whole society see that to control the rapid population growth is its responsibility and its urgent task. From the 1980s, all regions of China began one after another the activity of "doing accounts and making contrasts," during which people were organized to do accounts and make contrasts of the national and local changes after the founding of New China in terms of the population growth, per-capita cultivated land, grain supply and income, education, employment, housing and transportation, the differences in living standards between the families with more children and those with fewer children, and the benefits of family planning to the state and people. The activity has played an active role in helping people see clearly the nation's actual situation and practise family planning of their own accord.

　　从1987年开始，中国实施了以农村为重点的普及人口与计划生育基础知识教育的计划。目前，中国不少乡村和街道，都建立了人口学校或婚育学校。不同年龄和婚育状况的育龄人群，可以在这些学校里，通过医生、教师和干部的授课或咨询，在人口常识及生殖生理、避孕节育，妇幼保健等方面学得许多科学知识，从而更加自觉地实行计划生育。例如，地处辽宁省北部山区、农业人口占80%的铁岭市，1987年到1991年，70多万对育龄夫妇中有95%接受了教育。原来这个市每年出生人口中，早婚早育占10%左右，因近亲结婚、遗传病、地方病等导致的出生缺陷率达15‰左右。实施教育后的1991年，早婚早育降到1%以下，出生缺陷率降到8‰以下。全市92%的育龄夫妇都主动采取了避孕措施。

Since 1987, China has put into practice the plan on popularizing the basic knowledge of population and family planning, with the rural areas as the key points. At present, a number of villages and neighbourhoods have set up population or marriage education schools. The people at different childbearing ages and those in different situations may obtain scientific knowledge of population, childbirth, contraception and birth control, maternity and child care through the lectures or advice given by doctors, teachers and cadres. Then they may practise family planning more conscientiously. For instance, in Tieling City located in the northern mountain areas of Liaoning Province, whose agricultural population makes up 80 percent of the total, more than 700,000, or 95 percent, of the couples of child-bearing age received education from 1987 to 1991. In the past, of the city's annual newly born babies, about 10 percent were born to parents who married early and had children early; and the rate of births with genetic defects reached nearly 15 per thousand because of the marriage between close relatives, or hereditary and endemic diseases. After education, the percentage of the people who married early and had children early dropped to below 1 percent and the birth defect rate, to below 8 per thousand in 1991. Now 92 percent of the couples of child-bearing age in the city have adopted birth control measures of their own accord.

　　各级干部带头实行计划生育，在全体人民中形成了极大的影响力。例如，江苏省如东县的5万多名干部、党员，人人都能模范地执行国家的计划生育政策。在他们的影响下，广大群众也积极响应政府的号召，自觉实行计划生育。

Cadres at all levels taking the lead in practising family planning has exerted great influences among the people all over the country. For instance, each of over 50,000 cadres and Party members in Rudong County, Jiangsu Province has exemplarily implemented the state's family planning policy. Under their influence, the broad masses of the people actively respond to the government's call and practise family planning of their own free will.

　　活跃于各地的计划生育协会在宣传教育中发挥了重要作用。计划生育协会是由热心于计划生育的各界人士组成的具有广泛社会基础的群众团体。到目前到止，全国30个省、自治区、直辖市和绝大多数市、县及基层，都建立了计划生育协会，共有各级协会组织100多万个，会员约8000万名。会员与广大的育龄群众保持着密切的联系，全国正在逐步形成一种以群众自我教育、自我管理为主的计划生育工作局面。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

The activities of family planning associations in all areas have also played an important role in publicity and education. Consisting of people from all walks of life who are interested in family planning, these associations are mass organizations with an extensive social basis. Up to now, all 30 provinces, autonomous regions and centrally administered municipalities as well as the overwhelming majority of the cities, counties and grass-roots units have set up their family planning associations, totalling more than one million with approximately 80 million members. Their members keep in close touch with the broad masses of the couples of child-bearing age. A family planning work situation with self-education and self-management as the mainstay is being formed step by step.

　　中国除利用报刊、广播、电视、出版、戏剧、音乐、曲艺以及各种学校进行宣传教育外，还专门建立了遍及全国城乡的计划生育宣传教育网络。到八十年代后期，除西藏自治区外，全国各省、自治区、直辖市和计划单列市陆续建立了地区性的计划生育宣传教育中心。这些计划生育宣传教育中心共制作有关的电视、录像片1600多部。其它各种形式宣传品不计其数。到1994年，全国计划生育系统已建立2所计划生育管理干部学院、8所中等专业学校及26所省级培训中心。各市、县、乡普遍设立了含有宣传教育功能的计划生育服务站，居民、村民委员会均有计划生育宣传员。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

China makes full use of newspapers, radio, television, publication, theatre, music, local performances and schools to educate people about family planning. In addition, it has also set up a family planning publicity and education network reaching all parts of the country. In the late 1980s, all provinces, autonomous regions and centrally administered municipalities and the cities with economic planning directly supervised by the State Council (except Tibet Autonomous Region) set up regional family planning publicity and education centres one after another, which produced more than 1,600 television programmes and video tapes, and numerous publicity materials of various kinds. By 1994, two administrative officials' colleges, eight secondary professional schools and 26 provincial training centres had been founded as part of the national family planning system. Each city, county and township has a family planning service station focused on publicity and education; and all residents' and villagers' committees have a member responsible for propagating birth control education.

　　中国高等学校、研究机构积极参加了人口与计划生育的培训和研究。中国人口学会、中国人口文化促进会等社团也在组织人口学者、文艺工作者和各界人士参与人口与计划生育工作方面发挥了积极的作用。

Educational institutions of higher learning and research institutes in China also take an active part in training and research in population and birth control. The China Population Society, the China Population Culture Promotion Society and other organizations have also played an active role in organizing demographers, literary and art workers and people from all walks of life to participate in family planning work.

　　通过宣传教育，赢得亿万民众的共识和自觉参与，是中国成功实行计划生育的根本保证。

Publicity and education, which has resulted in the common understanding and conscientious participation of hundreds of millions of people, is the fundamental guarantee of the successful implementation of family planning in China.

五、满足育龄群众生殖保健的需要

V. Satisfying the Reproductive Health Needs of People of Child-bearing Age

　　中国实行计划生育坚持以避孕为主。为广大育龄群众提供计划生育的信息、咨询和服务，是中国实行计划生育的重要措施。政府十分重视依靠科技进步，研究开发计划生育、避孕节育的技术和方法，以满足育龄群众多方面、多层次的需求。政府还在全国普遍建立了计划生育、妇幼保健服务网络，向广大育龄群众及时提供安全、有效、方便的计划生育、生殖保健等方面的服务，保证了计划生育事业的开展。

While advocating family planning, China has mainly focused on contraception. Providing family planning information, consultation and services is an important measure in promoting family planning. The Chinese government attaches great importance to meeting the various and multi-level needs of people of child-bearing age by relying on progress in science and technology, and the study and development of the methods of family planning and contraception. In addition, the government has also established family planning and maternity and child care service networks throughout the country to provide people of child-bearing age with safe, effective and convenient services of family planning and reproductive health care, thus ensuring the smooth expansion of family planning.

　　中国早在六十年代就开展了避孕节育的科学研究工作，取得了大量成果并在全国普遍推广。八十年代以来，中国制定了计划生育科技发展规划，现已初步形成了布局较为合理的计划生育科研和避孕药具生产体系。中国已经有了一个种类比较齐全，方法多样，可供群众自由选择的避孕节育技术系列。中国的男性节育技术研究已处于世界领先地位，有的已被世界志愿手术节育协会列为推广技术。女性节育技术研究取得了不少重要的研究成果，有的已在国内外广泛应用。中国避孕药的研制已进入国际先进行列。在提高现有避孕药具质量的同时，中国抓紧研制新的更为安全、高效、简便、经济的避孕药具。为了满足广大育龄群众对避孕药具的需求，国家每年投资近2亿元，组织40多家工厂生产各种避孕药具。中国的避孕药具供应已基本做到了自给。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

Back in the 1960s, China embarked on scientific research on contraception, and soon made a large number of achievements, which were popularized all over the country. In the 1980s, China formulated the programme for the scientific and technological development of family planning, and has formed an initial, geographically rationally distributed system for family planning scientific research and the production of contraceptives. China has produced contraceptive and birth control technological services providing a great variety of methods for people to select as they wish. China leads the world in the research on male contraception techniques, some of which have been listed as the ones to be promoted by the World Association of Voluntary Surgical Contraception (AVSC). China has also made quite a number of important achievements in research of female contraception techniques, some of which have been extensively used in China and abroad. China has been included among those advanced countries in the development of contraceptives. While improving the quality of existing contraceptives, China is sparing no effort to develop safer, more effective, more convenient and cheaper contraceptives. To meet the demands of people of child-bearing age for contraceptives, the state has organized more than 40 factories and invested nearly 200 million yuan in the production of various contraceptives every year. Now the production of contraceptives in China has basically become self-sufficient.

　　为了保证广大育龄群众随时随地能够得到所需要的服务，中国建立了遍及全国城乡的由医院、妇幼保健站和计划生育服务站组成的计划生育服务网络。计划生育工作人员坚持面向基层、深入农村、服务上门、方便群众的原则，向育龄群众提供指导、咨询和服务，帮助他们根据自己的健康状况和需要，选择适宜的避孕节育方法。根据中国农村的实际情况，提倡生了一个孩子的育龄妇女采用宫内节育器，生了两个孩子的育龄夫妇一方做绝育手术，有利于保护妇女的身心健康，是安全、有效的避孕措施，因此，比较容易为农村育龄夫妇所接受。对于不适宜或不愿意采取这种措施的育龄夫妇，则指导他们根据自身情况选择其它适合的避孕方法。目前，全国约有2亿育龄夫妇采取了避孕措施，全国已婚育龄夫妇避孕率已达到80%左右。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

To ensure that people of child-bearing age can receive required services at any time and in any place, China has established countrywide family planning service networks consisting of hospitals, maternity and child care centres and family planning service stations. Following the principle of catering to grass-roots units, going deep into the countryside, offering services to people's doorsteps and providing conveniences to the people, family planning workers provide people of child-bearing age with guidance, advice and services, and help them select favourable contraceptive methods according to their health and needs. In light of the actual conditions in rural areas, women of child-bearing age there with one child are encouraged to use intrauterine device and either the wife or husband of a couple with two children is encouraged to undergo sterilization, which are safe and effective contraceptive measures favourable to the protection of women's health. Therefore they are more easily accepted by rural couples of child-bearing age. As to those couples who are unsuitable or unwilling to accept such measures, family planning workers guide them to select other contraceptive measures according to their needs. At present, more than 200 million married couples of child-bearing age in China have adopted contraceptive measures, making up about 80 percent of the country's total.

　　从六十年代开始，中国一直实行避孕药具免费发放和节育技术服务减免收费的政策。1988年，中国开始实行避孕药具免费发放与市场零售相结合的体制，拓宽了供应渠道，既方便和满足了群众的需要，又提高了避孕药具的使用效率。为了使群众能够及时得到避孕药具，从省、市到乡、村各级都有专门的机构或专人负责。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

Starting from the 1960s, China distributed contraceptives free of charge, and exempted and reduced the fees for birth control technical services. Since 1988, China has implemented the system of combining the supply of free contraceptives with retail sales in the market, thus widening the supply channels, providing conveniences to the people, satisfying their needs and raising the utilization rate of contraceptives. To ensure that people can get contraceptives in time, specialized organs have been set up or special personnel assigned for this purpose from the provincial and city down to the township and village levels.

　　中国政府反对将人工流产作为计划生育的手段加以提倡。国家允许需要人工流产妇女在安全、可靠的条件下做手术。随着计划生育科学知识的普及和避孕节育措施的广泛采用，很多地方的人工流产数呈下降趋势。中国在出生率大幅度下降的情况下，每年出生人口数与人工流产数之比保持在1：0.3左右，相当于目前世界各国的中等水平。

The Chinese government is against promoting induced abortion as a means of family planning. China allows women who require induced abortion to have such an operation under safe and reliable conditions. Along with the popularization of the scientific knowledge of family planning and the extensive adoption of contraceptive measures, the number of induced abortions has been on the decline in many places. When China's birth rate drops sharply, the annual ratio between the number of newly born babies and that of induced abortions has retained at around 1:0.3, equivalent to the medium level in the world.

　　为了保障母婴的健康，中国在做好计划生育工作的同时，努力改善医疗卫生条件，加强妇幼保健服务，提高了广大妇女和儿童的健康水平，这对计划生育起到了促进作用。中国已建成遍及全国城乡的妇幼保健服务网络。数千个妇幼保健机构广泛开展妇女病普查防治、遗传咨询、婚前检查、孕产期保健、新法接生、婴幼儿保健等多种服务。中国许多地区的计划生育部门为育龄夫妇开展了婚育系列保健服务活动。一些经济落后地区虽然医疗卫生条件还比较差，但由于卫生和计划生育部门组织服务人员主动上门为群众服务，保护了妇女和儿童的健康，深受群众的欢迎。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

To guarantee the health of babies and mothers, China has made efforts to improve medical and health care conditions and strengthen health care services for women and children while doing a job in family planning. Consequently, the improvement of women's and children's health has also promoted family planning. China has set up health care networks for women and children all over the country. Several thousand maternity and child care centres provide various services, including the general survey, prevention and treatment of women's diseases, consultation on hereditary diseases, examination before marriage, health care for pregnant and postpartum women, new delivery methods, health care for babies and young children, etc. The family planning departments in many places have initiated health-care-at-childbirth services for couples of child-bearing age. In spite of their comparatively backward medical and health care conditions, the health care and family planning departments in some economically underdeveloped regions have organized people to provide services to the people at their doorsteps to protect women and children's health, so that they are highly acclaimed by the people.

六、在改革和发展中走向完善

VI. Optimization Through Reform and Development

　　实践证明，中国实施的人口和计划生育方案取得了成功。但也要清醒地看到，目前各地区的计划生育工作发展不平衡，许多地区的生育水平还不稳定，部分地区的人口出生率还比较高；大多数农村地区特别是在一些经济不发达地区，计划生育工作方法和服务水平还有待改进和提高。在建立社会主义市场经济体制的过程中，计划生育工作又面临一些新情况和新问题。在人口素质、人口结构方面也存在一些不可忽视的问题。例如出生人口性别比偏高、人口老龄化等。因此中国在人口与发展问题上，仍然面临着严峻的挑战。实行计划生育，控制人口数量、提高人口素质仍然是一项艰巨而紧迫的战略任务。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

Practice has shown that China's population and family planning programme has been crowned with success. But we should also clearly see that there is still imbalance in development in various areas, instability in fertility levels in many regions, and the high birth rate in others. The working style and service level concerning family planning in most rural regions, especially in some economically underdeveloped areas, remain to be improved. In the process of establishing the socialist market economic system, family planning work is faced with new situations and new problems. There are also problems in the quality and structure of population that should not be neglected. These problems include the high sex ratio and the growing population aging. Therefore, China is still confronted with a severe challenge on issues of population and development. To carry out family planning and population control, and improve population quality remain an arduous and urgent task of strategic significance.

　　以建立社会主义市场经济体制为目标的改革，有力地促进了社会生产力的发展，同时也为计划生育工作走向完善创造了有利的社会经济条件。中国政府将继续坚定不移地贯彻执行计划生育这一基本国策，促进人口与经济、社会、资源、环境协调发展。一方面对适合中国国情，实践证明行之有效的基本经验要坚持并不断地加以完善；另一方面在适应新的形势，解放思想，实事求是，不断深化改革，努力提高计划生育工作的水平。必须坚决改变某些地方主要依靠行政手段、突击活动来推行计划生育的做法，坚持以宣传教育为主、避孕为主、经常工作为主，为广大育龄群众提供计划生育优质服务，特别是要为广大妇女提供生殖保健服务，保护妇女的身心健康。要把计划生育的宣传教育和管理寓于为群众提供生产、生活和生育服务之中。为此，中国政府在1995年底制订了《中国计划生育工作纲要(1995—2000年)》，对计划生育工作深入发展的任务、目标和原则、措施提出了明确的要求。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

The reform targeted at establishing a socialist market economic system is further promoting the development of social productive forces. At the same time, it has created favourable social and economic conditions for optimizing the family planning work. The Chinese government will unswervingly continue to carry out the basic national policy of family planning, and promote a coordinated development between population on one hand and the economy, society, resources and environment on the other. On one hand, we will adhere to and continually improve the basic experience that suits China's specific conditions and that has proved effective in practice; on the other, we should adapt ourselves to the new situation, emancipate the mind, seek truth from facts and unceasingly deepen the reform, to improve the level of family planning work. The practice of pursuing family planning mainly through administrative means and campaigns in some areas must be resolutely changed. The emphasis should be put on the publicity and education, contraception and regular work. Quality service in family planning should be provided to the people of child-bearing age, particularly the reproductive health care for women, to protect their health. The publicity and education and the management of family planning programme should serve the purpose of serving people's production, livelihood and fertility. With this in mind, the "Programme of China's Family Planning Work (1995-2000)" was formulated by the Chinese government at the end of 1994, setting clear demands on the task, target, principle and measures in deepening the development of family planning work.

　　中国政府认为，人口问题从根本上讲是一个发展问题。人口与经济、社会发展密不可分。因此，中国坚持把人口与计划生育工作作为国家经济、社会持续发展战略的一个重要组成部分，与经济、社会问题一同规划和组织实施。

The Chinese government holds that the issue of population is fundamentally one of development. Population is closely and inseparably related to economic and social development. Therefore, China always considers population and family planning an important component part of the strategy for the substained national economic and social development, and they are planned and implemented together with economic and social issues.

　　中国实行改革开放以来，国民经济和科技、教育、卫生、社会福利事业和发展，对人们生育观念的转变和生育率的下降起了积极的促进作用。在一些经济发展较快的地区，这种作用更加明显。经济发展与人口控制相互促进，使这些地区在较短时间内实现了向低出生、低死亡、低自然增长的现代人口再生产类型的转变。在经济发展相对落后的贫困地区，八十年代以来，中国政府制定了人口、粮食、生态、资源全面规划、综合治理、协调发展的总体战略，开展了大规模的扶贫开发活动，并把扶贫开发与计划生育结合起来，有力地促进了这些地区的经济、社会发展。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

Since China's reform and opening to the outside world, the development of national economy, science, technology, education, public health and social welfare has played an active and promotive role in changing people's concept of fertility and in lowering the birth rate. This role is particularly evident in areas where the economy has developed rapidly. As economic development and population control promote each other, these areas have seen a transition, in a relatively short period of time, to the modern population reproduction pattern characterized by a low birth rate, low death rate and low natural growth rate. As for poverty-stricken areas where the economy is relatively backward, since the 1980s, the Chinese government has formulated a comprehensive strategy in regard to the overall planning, comprehensive management and coordinated development in population, grain, ecology and resources. It has carried out extensive activities to help the poor in their development and integrated these activities with family planning, vigorously accelerating the economic and social development in these areas.

　　近年来，中国政府在总结历史经验和群众创造的基础上，提出在广大农村要把计划生育工作与发展经济、帮助农民勤劳致富奔小康、建设文明幸福的家庭结合起来，通过为农民群众提供生产、生活、生育方面的服务，首先帮助实行计划生育的家庭尽快致富，并带动更多的家庭少生、快富、奔小康。这种做法得到了各级政府、基层干部和广大群众的热情支持和衷心拥护。在较短的时间内，全国大多数省、区、市都逐步开展了这项工作。这样做不仅有利于促进农村经济的发展，增加农民的收入，提高农民的生活水平，而且有助于农民从切身利益中感受到少生孩子的好处，逐步转变生育观念，提高实行计划生育的自觉性和积极性。农村妇女不仅是这项活动的积极的参与者，也是主要的受益者。她们的生产力进一步得到了解放，劳动收入增加，家庭地位和社会地位得到提高，在婚姻生育方面也获得了更多的自主权。

On the basis of summing up experiences of history and the innovations of the people, the Chinese government in recent years has put forward that the rural areas should combine family planning with developing economy, helping peasants to become better off through hard work, and building progressive and happy families. Through providing service to peasants in production, livelihood and fertility, and above all through helping families practising family planning to become better off, more and more families were guided to have less children and to improve their financial situation as soon as possible. This practice has won warm support from governments at all levels, cadres at grass-roots level and the people. In a relatively short period of time, this work has been implemented in most of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities throughout the country. This is not only good for accelerating rural economic development, increasing peasants' income, and improving their living standard, but it can also make them realize from their immediate interests the benefit of having less children, gradually changing their attitudes towards fertility, hightening their awareness of and enthusiasm for carrying out family planning. Rural women not only take an active part in these activities but they also benefit mostly from them. Through these activities, they have enhanced their enthusiasm for production, increased their income from labour, improved their status in both the family and society and obtained greater independence in marriage and childbirth.

　　为了从根本上全面解决中国的人口问题，必须采取综合措施，包括大力发展经济，消除贫困，保护生态环境，合理开发利用资源，普及文化教育，发展医疗卫生和妇幼保健事业，完善社会保障制度，特别是养老保险制度，稳步推进城市化的进程，提高妇女地位、保障妇女的合法权益等。近年来，中国政府在这些方面都制定了规划、政策和措施，为实行计划生育创造了更加有利的条件和环境。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

In order to fundamentally and comprehensively solve China's population problem, comprehensive measures have to be adopted. Such measures include vigorously developing the economy, getting rid of poverty, protecting the ecological environment, rationally developing and utilizing resources, popularizing education, developing medical service and maternal and child health care, improving the social security system --especially the insurance system for the aged, steadily advancing urbanization, improving women's status, and guaranteeing the legal rights and interests of women. Over the past few years, the Chinese government has formulated plans, policies and measures in these fields, providing a more favourable environment for the implementation of family planning.

　　对于近年来出现的出生性别比升高的趋势，中国政府和全社会都十分重视，正在采取加强宣传教育、保障妇女儿童合法权益、严禁在医学需要之外采用技术性对胎儿性别鉴定和选择性人工流产，以及完善出生申报和统计制度等措施，逐步加以解决。

The Chinese government and the society as a whole have paid close attention to the recent tendency of the high sex ratio. The problem will be gradually solved through heightened publicity and education, and measures have been taken to guarantee the legal rights and interests of women and children; to severely prohibit, except when called for medically, the technical examination of fetus for determining sex followed by selective abortion; and to improve birth report and statistical system.

　　中国政府坚信，中国的计划生育事业必将在改革和发展中不断解决前进中出现的问题，逐步走向完善。

The Chinese government strongly believes that the problems that have appeared in the course of implementing China's family planning programme will be solved steadily in the process of reform and development, before it can be gradually improved and perfected.

七、保障人权的正确选择

VII. The Correct Choice for Human Rights Protection

　　中国政府在推行计划生育的实践中，既坚持从本国的实际情况出发，又充分考虑和遵守国际机构和组织制定的有关人口、计划生育的原则及各项规定，逐步确立了反映人民的根本利益和各项权益的方针、政策及措施、方法，并使之随着实际情况的变化不断完善，从而更好地维护中华民族的生存权和发展权。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

In the practice of carrying out family planning programme, whilst persistently proceeding from its reality and taking into full account and observing principles and regulations concerning population and family planning formulated by international institutions and organizations, the Chinese government has gradually set up guiding principles, policies, measures and methods that reflect the basic interests and various rights and interests of the people, and has continuously improved these as the actual situations change, so as to better safeguard the right to subsistence and development of the Chinese nation.

　　在国际交往和合作中，充分尊重各国的主权，互不干涉内政，是中国一贯主张和坚持的原则立场。1994年开罗国际人口与发展大会通过的《国际人口与发展大会行动纲领》指出，“制定和实施与人口有关的政策是每个国家的责任，应考虑到一国的经济、社会、环境、条件的多样性，充分地尊重该国人民各种不同的宗教和道德观念、文化背景和哲学信仰，以及全世界人民对一个共同未来所担负的共同而又有区别的责任。”各国只有根据本国的实际情况，自主地确定其人口政策和人口目标以及实现这一目标的方案与措施，才能有效地解决各自的人口问题。解决人口问题的国际合作，也应在尊重各国主权的前提下，本着相互理解、求同存异的态度进行，才能取得积极的成果。由于各国的国情不同，社会经济发展的程度和模式各异、文化风俗和价值观念有别，又由于各国人口问题存在的程度或形式有所不同，各国在解决人口问题的方案和力度上也会存在各种差异，这完全是一种正常的现象。中国不但从来不把自己在解决人口问题上的做法和观点强加于人，而且一向理解并欢迎一向善意的批评和有益的建议。但是，有些人歪曲事实或不顾基本的事实，对中国的计划生育事业妄加评论，指责其“违反人权”、“不人道”，甚至把他们的价值观念强加于中国，以“保护人权”为借口向中国施加压力，干涉中国的内政，这是中国断然不能接受的。任何此类干涉中国内政的做法，既背离了国际社会在人口领域确立的基本原则，又违背了公认的国际法准则，都是无益于中国计划生育事业的健康发展和世界人口的稳定的。

It has been China's consistent stand and principle in international exchange and cooperation to fully respect the sovereignty of all nations, and not to interfere with the internal affairs of other nations. The "Programme of Action" adopted by the International Conference on Population and Development by that conference in Cairo, 1994, pointed out: "The formulation and implementation of population-related policies is the responsibility of each country and should take into account the economic, social and environmental diversity of conditions in each country, with full respect for the various religious and ethical values, cultural backgrounds and philosophical convictions of its people, as well as the shared but differentiated responsibilities of all the world's people for a common future." Only by proceeding from the reality of the country, independently setting up its population policy and target, as well as plans and measures to realize this target, can the population problem of each country be effectively solved. Positive results of solving population problem through international cooperation can only be achieved under the premise of respecting the sovereignty of each country, and by adopting the attitude of mutual understanding and the seeking of common ground while preserving differences. As the national situation, the degree and pattern of social and economic development, cultural habits and values, and the specific characteristics of the population problem in each country differ, there will be differences in the plan and dynamics of problem solving in each country, which is a normal phenomenon. Not only has China never imposed its ways and ideas of solving its own population problem on anyone else, but it has, instead, always understood and welcomed all good-intentioned criticism and useful suggestions from outside. However, some people, distorting or disregarding the basic facts, have made improper comments on China's family planning programme, criticizing it as a "violation of human rights," and denouncing it as "inhumane." They have even tried to impose their values and ideas on China, using the excuse of "protecting human rights" to put pressure on China and to interfere in China's internal affairs. This is totally unacceptable. Any such practice of interfering in China's internal affairs has not only deviated from the basic principle set up in the field of population by the international community, but it has also violated the established principles of international law, which will neither help promote a healthy development of China's family planning programme nor the stability of the world's population.

　　中国一向认为，人权概念是历史发展的产物，同一定的社会、政治、经济条件，同一个国家特定的历史、文化和观念密切相关。人权的实现与完善是一个历史的过程，作为公民各项权利之一的生育选择权也同样如此。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

China has always held that concepts of human rights are a product of historical development, closely related to social, political and economic conditions, as well as the individual nation's particular history, culture and concepts. The realization and optimization of human rights is a historical process. A citizen's right of choice in reproduction is also part of this process.

　　二十世纪中叶世界人口形势发生重大变化，世界人口增长速度之快及其所带来的严重后果，日益引起国际社会和各国的关注。特别是在人口增长过快的发展中国家，人口与生存、发展的矛盾尤为突出。不合理的国际经济秩序、迟滞的经济和社会的发展，加上人口的压力，使一些发展中国家和地区与发达国家在人民福利和生活条件上的差距持续拉大，生活在贫困状态下的人数有增无减。在认识到人口问题的严重性和控制人口的紧迫性之后，人们对生育及其相关权利的理解和主张，也随着历史条件的变化而变得更加充分和全面。1974年布加勒斯特国际人口会议通过的《世界人口行动计划》提出，“个人的生殖行为同社会的需要和愿望应该相互协调”。在肯定“所有夫妇和个人都享有负责地自由决定其子女人数和生育间隔以及为达此目的而获得资料、教育与方法的基本人权”的同时，明确指出“夫妇和个人在行使这种权利时，应考虑他们现有的子女和将来的子女的需要，以及他们对社会的责任”。1984年墨西哥城国际人口会议通过的《进一步执行世界人口行动计划的建议》又强调指出，“任何对权利的承认同时也意味着责任”。夫妇和个人在行使生育选择权，“应认真考虑他们自己的情况以及他们的决定对其子女和他们所生活的社区和社会的平衡发展有何影响”。“各国政府可以作出较多的努力去帮助其人民以负责的态度作出有关生育的决定。”1994年开罗国际人口和发展大会通过的《国际人口与发展大会行动纲领》又一次强调，生殖权利“承认所有夫妇和个人均享有自由、负责地决定生育次数、生育间隔和时间，并获得这样做的信息和方法基本权利，以及实现性和生殖健康方面最高标准的权利。”并指出“在行使这种权利时，他们应考虑到他们已有的和将来的子女的需要以及他们对社会所负的责任。促进所有人负责任地行使这些权利应成为政府和社区支持的生殖健康包括计划生育方面政策和方案的基础。”

The great changes in the world population situation in the mid-twentieth century, the rapid world population growth and the severe consequence ensuing have aroused increasing attention from the international community and various countries. The contradiction between population on one hand and survival and development on the other is especially sharp in developing countries with a fast population growth. Irrational international economic order, stagnant economic and social development, and the pressure of a large population have continually widened the gap between developed and developing countries in terms of welfare and living conditions, increasing rather than decreasing the number of those living below the poverty line. With recognition of the seriousness of the population problem and the urgent need to control population growth, people's understanding and attitudes towards reproduction and other associated rights have changed, responding to new historical conditions, becoming more comprehensive. The "World Population Plan of Action," approved at the International Population Conference held in Bucharest in 1974, states: "Individual reproductive behaviour and the needs and aspirations of society should be reconciled.... All couples and individuals have the basic right to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children and to have the information, education and means to do so; the responsibility of couples and individuals in the exercise of this right takes into account the needs of their living and future children, and their responsibilities towards the community." The "Recommendations on Further Implementing the World Population Plan of Action," approved at the 1984 International Population Conference held in Mexico City, again emphasized that "Any recognition of rights also implies responsibilities." Accordingly, when couples and individuals exercise their right to the choice of reproduction, they should "take into consideration their own situation, as well as the implications of their decisions or the balanced development of their children and of the community and society in which they live." The "Recommendations" point out that "governments can do more to assist people in making their reproductive decisions in a responsible way." The "Programme of Action" adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994 once again points out that "these [reproductive] rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health.... In the exercise of this right, they should take into account the needs of their living and future children and their responsibilities towards the community. The promotion of the responsible exercise of these rights for all people should be the fundamental basis for government- and community-supported policies and programmes in the area of reproductive health, including family planning."

　　中国实行的计划生育，正是本着国际社会确定的有关原则和人权要求进行的。中国的计划生育政策的方案，体现了公民权利和义务的统一、个人利益和社会利益的统一。这既与历次国际人口会议确定的基本原则相吻合，又建立在社会主义条件下人们之间利益关系的基础之上。在任何国家，权利和义务从来都不是绝对的，而是相对而言的。没有离开权利的义务，也没有离开义务的权利。在社会的要求和个人的利益之间有冲突时，以某种方式来加以调解，这是各主权国家的政府都在做的事情。由于中国人口规模大，中国政府必须对公民的生育数量有所限制。对每一个公民来说，这是应尽的义务，因为这是为了全社会全民族共同的富强，而不是为了谁的私利。这是完全正当的，完全符合中国社会的道德观念。脱离实际，抽象地、绝对地来谈论公民权利和义务，不仅在中国站不住脚，在任何国家都是站不住脚的。在中国这样一个人口众多的发展中国家，如果片面强调夫妇和个人的生育自由，而不同时确立人们在生育问题上对家庭、子女和社会利益应负的责任，只能导致盲目生育，人口无限膨胀，绝大多数人包括新生婴儿利益都会受到严重损害。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

Family planning in China is pursued in complete accordance with the relevant principles and human rights requirements designated by the international community. China's family planning policies and programmes combine citizens' rights and duties, joining the interests of the individual with those of society. These conform to the basic principles outlined at the various international population conferences and have been established on the basis of the relationship of interpersonal interests under socialism. Never in any country are rights and duties absolute, but rather, they are relative. There are no duties apart from rights, or rights apart from duties. When there is conflict between social needs and individual interests, a means has to be sought to mediate it. This is something that the government of every sovereign country is doing. As China has a large population, the Chinese government has to limit the number of births of its citizens. This is a duty incumbent on each citizen as it serves the purpose of making the whole society and whole nation prosperous, and it is not proceeding from the private interest of some individuals. This is wholly justifiable and entirely consistent with the moral concepts of Chinese society. To talk about citizens' rights and duties out of reality in an abstract and absolute way does not hold water either in China or in any other country. In a heavily populated developing country like China, if the reproductive freedom of couples and individuals are unduly emphasized at the expense of their responsibilities to their families, children and societal interests in matters of child bearing, indiscriminate reproduction and unlimited population growth will inevitably ensue. The interests of the majority of the people, including those of new-born infants, will be seriously harmed.

　　应当看到，在中国尤其是在农村地区、落后地区和边远地区，一部分育龄夫妇的生育意愿同现行的计划生育政策要求有一定距离，在计划生育工作中也难免会有这样那样的缺点，但是，由于计划生育政策从根本上符合中国绝大多数人的利益，而且在实际执行过程中，注意照顾一部分群众的实际困难和正当要求，坚决维护公民的合法权益，因而计划生育政策得到了广大人民群众的理解和认同。通过长期的实践，中国人民从实际的利益中越来越感受到计划生育是一项利国利民的事业，越来越理解和支持这项事业。经过不懈的努力，包括吸取各国有益的经验，中国计划生育的管理水平和服务质量正在不断提高，实际工作中的缺点和问题也在明显减少。相信一切不抱偏见的人会尊重这个基本事实。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

We should see that in China, especially in rural, backward and remote areas, there is a gap between the desire for childbirth of some couples of child-bearing age and the demand of the present family planning policy, and shortcomings of one kind or another are unavoidable in family planning work. However, as the family planning policy fundamentally conforms to the interests of the majority of the Chinese people and, during its actual implementation, the actual difficulties and reasonable demands of some people have been taken into consideration and the legal rights and interests of the citizens are strongly protected, the family planning policy has won understanding and recognition from the broad masses of the people. Through long period of practice, the Chinese people have realized more and more deeply from their practical interests that family planning is a cause that benefits the nation and the people, and they have increasingly come to understand and support this cause. After unremitting efforts, including drawing useful experience from other countries, the management level and service quality of China's family planning programme have continually been improved and the shortcomings and problems in its actual work has been remarkably reduced. We believe that all those who do not seek to hold prejudice will respect this basic fact.

结束语

Concluding Remarks

　　中国作为拥有世界五分之一以上人口的国家，深知自己在稳定全球人口中所肩负的责任和应该发挥的重要作用。实行计划生育，解决好中国的人口问题，不仅是对中国人民和子孙后代的幸福负责，也是对稳定全球人口应尽的义务。为了人类的共同利益，同时也是为了各国自身的利益，国际社会和各国应共同努力解决各国和世界的人口问题，以促进各国和整个人类社会的发展和进步。自1974年在布加勒斯特首次召开国际人口会议至今，已经历了21个春秋。国际社会和各国政府在执行《世界人口行动计划》和《墨西哥城宣言》方面取得了新的进展，世界人口增长速度有了进一步的下降。尽管如此，世界人口每年仍以约9000万的规模增长着，到本世界末世界人口将达到62.5亿，到2025年将达到84亿，控制世界人口的任务依然紧迫而艰巨。中国将一如既往地继续与世界各国协调行动，通力合作，为贯彻落实《国际人口与发展大会行动纲领》，稳定全球人口，为人类更加美好的未来作出积极的贡献。微博@高斋翻硕 公众号:高斋翻译学堂

China is home to more than one-fifth of the world's population. It thoroughly understands the responsibility it bears in stabilizing world population growth and the essential role it should play. Family planning as an effective solution to China's population problems is more than just responsibility towards the well-being of the Chinese people and future generations; it is a duty owed to maintaining the stability of the world population. Working for the common interests of all of humanity, at the same time working for individual interests of each nation, the international community and each nation should work together to solve the population problems facing individual nations and the entire world. This will promote development and progress in every country and throughout human society.

Twenty-one years have passed since the First International Population Conference was held in Bucharest in 1974. The government of each nation and the international community as a whole have made new progress in implementing the "World Population Plan of Action" and the "Mexico City Declaration." The rate of increase in world population has been further slowed. Still, world population continues to increase by 90 million per annum, and it will reach 6.25 billion by the end of the century and 8.4 billion by 2025. Control of world population remains an urgent and difficult task. China, as always, will continue to work in concert with all the nations of the world to carry out the "Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development" and make positive contributions to stabilizing world population and ensuring a happier future for mankind.