A: China is a dense-populated country with limited resources. In order to balance
the population growth with economic and social development and limited resources,
the Chinese government has family planning as one of its basic policies, whose
implementation is based on the guidance of the state and the free will of the
masses. It plays a big role in controlling population growth and improving the
quality of life of the people.
However, China operates a special family planning
policy for Tibetan people, which is worked out by the local government of Tibet
in line with the actual situation of the region concerned. At present 88 percent
of Tibetan farmers and herdsmen are not subject to the family planning policy,
but are encouraged to practice birth control in order to give their children a
better quality of life. There are actually very few usable land resources on the
vast Tibet Plateau. In 1991 the per capita arable land was only 0.1 hectare in
Tibet, while the population continued to swell. In view of this situation, the
government of Tibet Autonomous Region has, since 1984, advocated a family planning
policy among Tibetan officials, encouraging each couple to have one to two children
over several years' span. But there is no restriction on the number of children
in Tibetan farming and herdsmen's families. Forced abortion in any form is prohibited
in implementing the family planning policy. In addition, birth control propaganda
has not even found its way into the sparsely populated frontier regions of Tibet. |
