THE EVOLUTION OF POPULATION-POLICY IN RURAL CHINA

Fertility declined rapidly in China in the 1970s, to slightly above re placement level by 1978. It was intended by the government that the On e-Child Family Policy, introduced in 1979, would lower fertility still further. However, the decollectivization of agriculture, also initiat ed in the late 1970s, weakened collective institutions, thereby underm ining birth planning administration and family planning services. The consequent stall in fertility was succeeded in 1987 by a sudden and pr onounced decline, to a total fertility rate of 1.8 in 1992. This paper is an attempt to explain this recent decline in terms of falling dema nd for children, the provision of more accessible family planning serv ices, and the operation of restrictive population policy. The major em phasis is on the formulation and implementation of birth control polic ies in rural areas. Since 1979 central government population policy ha s become progressively liberalized, culminating in the format abandonm ent of the One-Child Family Policy in 1991. Local policymakers, howeve r, have been intimately exposed to the reproductive demands of the pea santry. As a result a uniform national policy co-exists with highly di verse policies at the local level, dependent on social and economic co nditions. The declining authority of township (commune) birth planning administrations was arrested in the late 1980s with the massive injec tion of funds from all levels of government. This reversal was aided b y the recruitment of over 50 million volunteers by the Communist Party -led Family Planning Association, to reinforce the work of birth plann ing cadres and family planning personnel. Above all, it is argued that the effective implementation of local birth plans has relied on an in tensification of cooperation between birth planning officials and othe r local government cadres who regulate access to resources, such as la nd and credit, without which the aspirations of ordinary people cannot be realised.