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