China said Tuesday it would continue enforcing its one-child policy to limit its huge population to 1.6 billion by 2050, but also admitted the policy had led to abuses such as forced abortions.
Zhang Weiqing, director the State Family Planning Commission, told reporters at the launch of a population policy white paper that China had little choice but to continue with the 20-year-old practice.
"It would be unthinkable for a state which accounts for one fifth of the world's population not to have this family planning program," said Zhang.
If not, "China would forever stay in poverty and the poverty of China will be a disaster for the world," he added.
However he accepted there were problems with enforcement, and for the first time he held out the prospect of incentives for families who stick by the rules rather than just punishments for transgressors.
Zhang said the policy had led to forced abortions as well as selective abortion of female foetuses by couples who preferred sons, which has in turn led to a high ratio of 111.3 newborn boys to 100 newborn girls.
And in some cases the policy had led to infanticide, he said.
"China is a country in which the relevance of several thousand years of feudal society is still extensively felt and in traditional Chinese thinking, men are more important than women," Zhang said.
"This kind of ideaology has led to the abandonment of baby girls at birth and people are also making use of modern technologies to have selective abortions to get rid of unwanted baby girls," he said.
He confirmed one recent case in which three family planning workers in the central Chinese city of Wuhan were arrested on suspicion of causing the death of a newborn baby.
The baby, the fourth child of a peasant couple, was reportedly drowned in a rice paddy.
Zhang said the case was an isolated incident and that China was in the process of setting up rules to regulate the work of family planning workers to prevent such incidents.
"We've always been opposed to coercion in these cases and we are extremely opposed to induced abortion ... Through this (Wuhan case) we've learned serious lessons," Zhang said.
China's population, which stands at around 1.26 billion, is expected to grow to 1.33 billion by 2005, 1.4 billion by 2010 and peak at 1.6 billion by 2050, according to the white paper.
"The population growth will continue for a prolonged period of time, with an annual net increase of over 10 million in the next decade or so, which will exert great pressure on the economy, society, resources, environment and sustained development," the document said.
The white paper said the one-child policy had succeeded in helping China avoid more than 300 million births.
The birth rate and natural growth rate (the balance of deaths to births) decreased from 33.43 percent and 25.83 percent in 1970 to 15.23 percent and 8.77 percent in 1999, respectively, according to the paper.
The document, while arguing the importance of controlling the population to raise the living standards of Chinese citizens, also showed the government recognizes the problem of focusing too much on sanctions in the past.
Such emphasis on punishment has led to militant tactics by family planning workers including forced abortions and the razing of homes of couples who violate the policy.
Incentives will now be offered to couples to have one child, including "tangible benefits" such as bonuses, retirement funds and a stronger social security system, according to the white paper.
Peasants, a majority of whom still prefer to have sons, will be given preferential treatment when dividing land to build houses and employment if they stick to the policy, the document said -- BEIJING (AFP)
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