ABSTRACT
When the author came to China in May 1981 (not with any special study group, but with an ordinary commercial guided tour), he was greatly surprised to learn that the former policy of “two children per family is enough,” espoused since 1971, had only recently been replaced by the much more restrictive policy of “only one child per family.” Meanwhile the Chinese government must apparently have changed its mind about how much publicity to give to such incidents, because with its permission a British television team last year produced a documentary about the family planning program in the city of Chanzhou, which currently serves as a model city for successful population control. Pressure toward compliance was at first comparatively mild, taking the form primarily of propaganda and simple persuasion. It became quite clear that in order for agriculture to be able to cope with the growing population, fertility would have to be reduced to well below the replacement level.
