| Abstract | China's 1.2 Billion Population Day came barely three weeks before the World Summit for Social Development, a United Nations-sponsored global congress scheduled to open in Copenhagen on Tuesday. Premier Li Peng is expected to attend the conference shortly after delivering the government work report at the opening of the National People's Congress in Beijing on Monday. One of the major topics at the social summit will be the improvement in the livelihood of people in underdeveloped or developing regions. In comparison with the cheerful parents of Zhao Xu, Chinese social development planners may not look so happy on hearing and analysing certain facts. Although China has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, its gigantic population, still increasing at the rate of about 14 million a year, puts constant pressure on its capacity for family planning, despite the fact that it has been strictly enforced since the 1970s. |
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