ECONOMIC-REFORM AND POPULATION-CONTROL IN RURAL MAINLAND CHINA IN THE 1980S

This article examines the difficult task faced by mainland China's leadership in implementing population control through household size restrictions in rural areas. Population control measures were put in place in the form of later minimum ages for marriage, fewer children allowed per couple in 1971, and the "one child per family" policy in 1979. In that same year, rural economic reform was initiated. These two attempts at influencing rural development in mainland China fall into two periods: the first from 1973 to 1979 and the second from 1980 to the present. Changes since 1980, and particularly since 1984, are often negatively evaluated and have raised serious concerns about the future of mainland China's population control program. Those concerns are centered on the agricultural responsibility system into which the population policy is integrated, the modification and relaxation of the population control policy and program, the decentralization of policy and programs, policy implementation, and the hurdles of traditional rural attitudes and values that need to be overcome. These combined factors present formidable obstacles to the successful implementation of the policies. Strategies for future population control programs in rural mainland China are suggested.