ABSTRACT
The introduction of birth planning in China and its successive tightening until the start of the one-child policy has evoked heated debates. In most of its statements on population policy directed at foreign audiences, the Chinese leadership has tried hard to gloss over the toughness of its measures. A typical example are remarks by former Party leader Zhao Ziyang, who in July 1987, in a television spot sponsored by the UN to commemorate the ‘Day of 5 Billion People’, declared categorically: ‘Birth planning in China is practiced on a voluntary basis.’ 1
