China on Monday marked the 20th anniversary of its 'one child' policy by promising to strengthen the fight to keep its vast population under control. An editorial in the communist party's mouthpiece, ‘The People's Daily’, said that the draconian family planning policy launched in 1980 had lowered the population growth rate by one per cent per year in the 1990s. But it warned that the Chinese population would continue to grow by 10 million people per year over the next few decades.

According to official statistics, China's population reached 1.259 billion at the end of last year and is due to reach 1.4 billion around 2010 and 1.6 billion in 2050. This will have an enormous impact on employment as well as the economy and the environment, said the paper, calling for legislation on birth control to be put in place as soon as possible.

Currently China has no laws on population control, and it merely implements directives from the party or the government. The policy stipulates each couple living in the cities should only have one child, unless one or both of the couple are from an ethnic minority or they are both only children.
In most rural areas, a couple may have a second child after a break of several years. But it is common to find couples in the countryside with a large brood of children. Despite forced abortions and severe financial penalties, many couples still get around the law by sending the pregnant woman to stay with relatives until the baby is born or claiming the newborn baby was adopted or belongs to a friend or relative.
Bureau Report