Overpopulation of China and Its Government Plans To Resolve It

The Problem

China, which has one fifth of the world's population, became People's Republic in 1949; it already had 538 million inhabitants in 1953. The figure has now reached 1,254 billion. This huge demographic potential is also a difficult problem for those responsible for developing the country. Therefore, the question arises that what are the consequences of this gigantic population on economic and social development of China?

The demographic transition is indeed committed to China and the population will soon stagnate or regress. China seems on the path of development; its level of development is increasing thanks to the role of cities like Beijing or Shanghai and the handover of Hong Kong by the United Kingdom in 1997 and Macao by Portugal in 1999 (Gilland, p. 47-63). Though China is lagging behind in terms of wealth that it is producing in comparison to all developed countries (per capita income is half of the world average), yet, there has been a remarkable growth in recent years, particularly when talking about GDP. Moreover, one of the reasons for the low per capita income in China is because of the huge population that it has. This means that in an overall term, China might be earning much more than other countries, yet, because of the huge population of the country, the per capita income is half of the world average. Wealth now increases much faster than the number of inhabitants, while many developing countries have difficulties in increasing their wealth faster than their population. Popular China occupies a higher than average of developing countries (Gilland, p. 47-63).

Efforts are being made in China to improve training and schooling, as part of the third of the "four modernizations" put the country in an honorable position. Democratization and the simplification of writing since 1949 have reduced illiteracy dramatically: from 90% illiteracy in 1949, the country has dropped to less than 20% today (for comparison, the literacy rate in India is only 52%).

However, problems related to excessive population growth have not disappeared. Despite some improvements, poverty remains high. Nearly 30% of China's population lives on an income level of less than one dollar a day. However, the number of Chinese who know the absolute poverty has declined significantly even if social inequalities are increasing. They are glaring between the coast and the interior of China. Similarly, social differences are very important between farmers and new rich and much of the population is very little concerned with the development, while a minority derives profits. Moreover, the middle classes who often show the level of development of a country are still underrepresented (Overmeyer, Daniel, p. 314-321).

Peasants are too many for a modern agriculture, crofting hinder its development. Urban infrastructure is not yet ready to host such a large population, which does not mean that this population leaves the countryside for fear of an explosion of slums typical of many developing countries and that China has so far avoided. It will therefore convert this ...