China's population (стр. 2 из 2)

　

III. Composition of Nationalities.

Of the people enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 1,159.40 million persons or 91.59 percent were of Han nationality, and 106.43 million persons or 8.41 percent were of various national minorities. Compared with the 1990 population census, the population of Han people increased by 116.92 million persons, or 11.22 percent; while the population of various national minorities increased by 15.23 million persons, or 16.70 percent.

　

IV. Composition of Educational Attainment.

Of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 45.71 million persons had finished university education (referring to junior college and above); 141.09 million persons had received senior secondary education (including secondary technical school education); 429.89 million persons had received junior secondary education and 451.91 million persons had had primary education (the educated persons included graduates and students in schools).

Compared with the 1990 population census, the following changes had taken place in the number of people with various educational attainments of every 100,000 people: number of people with university education increased to 3,611 from 1,422; number of people with senior secondary education increased to 11,146 from 8,039; number of people with junior secondary education increased from 23,344 to 33,961; and number of people with primary education decreased from 37,057 to 35,701.

Of the people enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 85.07 million persons were illiterate (i.e. people over 15 years of age who can not read or can read very little). Compared with the 15.88 percent of illiterate people in the 1990 population census, the proportion had dropped to 6.72 percent, or down by 9.16 percentage points.

　

V. Urban and Rural Population.

In the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of the mainland of China, there were 455.94 million urban residents, accounting for 36.09 percent of the total population; and that of rural residents stood at 807.39 million, accounting for 63.91 percent. Compared with the 1990 population census, the proportion of urban residents rose by 9.86 percentage points.

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION

Following are the results from the advance tabulation on the geographic distribution of population from the fifth national population census of China:

Region	Population (million)
Beijing Municipality	13.82
Tianjin Municipality	10.01
Hebei Province	67.44
Shanxi Province	32.97
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region	23.76
Liaoning Province	42.38
Jilin Province	27.28
Heilongjiang Province	36.89
Shanghai Municipality	16.74
Jiangsu Province	74.38
Zhejiang Province	46.77
Anhui Province	59.86
Fujian Province (excluding the population in Jinmen and Mazu and a few other islands)	34.71
Jiangxi Province	41.40
Shandong Province	90.79
Henan Province	92.56
Hubei Province	60.28
Hunan Province	64.40
Guangdong Province	86.42
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region	44.89
Hainan Province	7.87
Chongqing Municipality	30.90
Sichuan Province	83.29
Guizhou Province	35.25
Yunnan Province	42.88
Tibet Autonomous Region	2.62
Shaanxi Province	36.05
Gansu Province	25.62
Qinghai Province	5.18
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region	5.62
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region	19.25
Hongkong Special Administrative Region	6.78
Macao Special Administrative Region	0.44
Taiwan Province and Jinmen, Mazu and a few other islands of Fujian Province	22.28
Servicemen	2.50

Because of complex natural conditions, the population of China is quite unevenly distributed. Population density varies strikingly, with the greatest contrast occurring between the eastern half of China and the lands of the west and the north-west. Exceptionally high population densities occur in the Yangtze Delta, in the Pearl River Delta, and on the Ch'eng-tu Plain of the western Szechwan Basin. Most of the high-density areas are coterminous with the alluvial plains on which intensive agriculture is centred.

In contrast, the isolated, extensive western and frontier regions, which are much larger than any European nation, are sparsely populated. Extensive uninhabited areas include the extremely high northern part of Tibet, the sandy wastes of the central Tarim and eastern Dzungarian basins in Sinkiang, and the barren desert and mountains east of Lop Nor.

In the 1950s the government became increasingly aware of the importance of the frontier regions and initiated a drive for former members of the military and young intellectuals to settle there. Consequently, the population has increased, following the construction of new railways and highways that traverse the wasteland; a number of small mining and industrial towns have also sprung up.

INTERNAL MIGRATION

Migrations have occurred often throughout the history of China. Sometimes they took place because a famine or political disturbance would cause the depopulation of an area already intensively cultivated, after which people in adjacent crowded regions would move in to occupy the deserted land. Sometime between 1640 and 1646 a peasant rebellion broke out in Szechwan, and there was a great loss of life. People from Hupeh and Shensi then entered Szechwan to fill the vacuum, and the movement continued until the 19th century. Again, during the middle of the 19th century, the Taiping Rebellion caused another large-scale disruption of population. Many people in the Lower Yangtze were massacred by the opposing armies, and the survivors suffered from starvation. After the defeat of the rebellion, people from Hupeh, Hunan, and Honan moved into the depopulated areas of Kiangsu. Anhwei. and Chekiang, where farmland was lying uncultivated for want of labour. Similar examples are provided by the Nien Rebellion in the Huai River region in the 1850s and '60s, the Muslim rebellions in Shensi and Kansu in the 1860s and '70s, and the great Shensi and Shansi famine of 1877-78.

In modern history the domestic movement of the Han to Manchuria (now known as the Northeast) is the most Migration significant. Even before the establishment of the Ch'ing to dynasty in 1644, Manchu soldiers launched raids into Manchuria North China and captured Han labourers, who were then obliged to settle in Manchuria. In 1668 the area was closed to further Han migration by an Imperial decree, but this ban was never effectively enforced. By 1850. Han settlers had secured a position of dominance in their colonisation of Manchuria. The ban was later partially' lifted, partly because the Manchu rulers were harassed by disturbances among the teeming population of China proper and partly because the Russian Empire time and again tried to invade sparsely populated and thus weakly defended Manchuria. The ban was finally removed altogether in 1878, but settlement was encouraged only after 1900. The influx of people into Manchuria was especially pronounced after 1923, and incoming farmers rapidly brought a vast area of virgin prairie under cultivation. About two-thirds of the immigrants entered Manchuria by sea, and one-third came overland. Because of the severity of the winter weather, migration in the early stage was highly seasonal, usually starting in February and continuing through the spring. After the autumn harvest a large proportion of the farmers returned south. As Manchuria developed into the principal industrial region of China, however, large urban centres arose, and the nature of the migration changed. No longer was the movement primarily one of agricultural resettlement; instead it became essentially a rural-to-urban movement of interregional magnitude. After 1949 the new government's efforts to foster planned migration into interior and border regions produced noticeable results. Although the total number of people involved in such migrations is not known, it has been estimated that by 1980 about 25 to 35 percent of the population of such regions and provinces as Inner Mongolia, Sinkiang, Heilungkiang. and Tsinghai consisted of recent migrants, and migration had raised the percentage of Han in Sinkiang from about 10 to 40 percent of the total. Efforts to control the growth of large cities led to the resettlement of 20,000,000 urbanites in the countryside after the failure of the Great Leap Forward and of 17,-000,000 urban-educated youths in the decade after 1968. Within the next decade, however, the majority of these "rusticated youths" were allowed to return to the cities, and new migration from rural areas pushed urban population totals upward once again.

China Sticks to Population Control Policy in New Century

China will continue its efforts to control the growth of the population in the 21 century, said Zhang Weiqing, minister of the State Family Planning Commission on November 2, 2000.

At the annual board meeting of the Partners in Population and Development by South-South Cooperation, which opened Thursday in Beijing, Zhang said that keeping a low birth rate is the key task of China' s family planning program in the coming decade.

He said that China has made it a goal to keep the population below 1.4 billion until 2010 on the basis of scientific feasibility study.

In order to realise the goal, China is persisting in popularisation and education about family planning and contraception, and it will make efforts to build a perfect population control system suitable for China's situation, said Zhang.

According to Zhang, population will continue to be a pressing issue for China in the 21st century. The annual net population growth will be more than 10 million at the start of the new century. The population will not decline until it reaches a peak of 1.6 billion in the middle of the 21st century, Zhang said.

At present, China has a large work-age population, which puts a heavy burden on employment. The work-age population will peak at 900 million in the coming decades.

In addition, Zhang predicts that the number of senior citizens over the age of 60 in China will reach 130 million at the end of this year, and will exceed 357 million in 2030, and 439 million in 2050, or a quarter of the total population.

Zhang said that China will stick to family planning policy for a long time depending on future population situation.

President on Population Control, Resources and Environmental Protection

Population control, resources and environmental protection will be three crucial issues in China's march toward becoming a great power in the new century, President Jiang Zemin told a seminar held by the Communist Party of China Central Committee Sunday.

Jiang said that governmental decisions concerning the country's population control, resources and environmental protection demand concerted efforts and cooperation from all walks of life.

Jiang warned that although marked progress had been made during the 1996-2000 period, China is still facing many problems and challenges concerning population, resources and environmental protection in the coming years.

"These issues are directly related to the country's overall development. Failure in handling them may postpone the achievement of China's set goals in terms of social and economic development," said Jiang.

Jiang said that the next few years will be a crucial stage for China to stabilise its birth rate at the current low level and improve population quality.

When dealing with population issues, governments at all levels should better serve the people's needs, and turn the country's birth control efforts into a cause benefiting China's huge populace, Jiang remarked.

Jiang also said that resource-related works should better serve the country's sustainable development. Protection and rational utilisation of resources are to be granted equal importance by administration departments.

Meanwhile, the president called for the establishment of a strict resources administration mechanism, and urged the transformation of the traditional resource-utilising norms, to save natural resources from being wasted.

Jiang suggested the use of new technologies and a complete monitoring system to curb the country's long-standing environmental pollution, while guaranteeing healthy economic development.

Also in his speech, Jiang stressed the importance of improving the regulation of China's scarce water resources and the further construction of irrigation works.

LITERATURE:

1. NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS PEOPLE'S REPUPLIC OF CHINA.

2. GREAT BRITISH ENCYCLOPAEDIA

3. CHINEESE MAGAZINES (ENGLISH VARIANT)