ounts 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.
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.
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