China makes remarkable efforts to improve family planning: official

BEIJING - China has made remarkable efforts to improve family planning work, especially in reforming its administrative approach towards a client-oriented approach in family planning, a senior official said on Thursday.

Wang Peian, vice director of the population, resources and environmental committee under the CPPCC National Committee, made the remarks at a launch event of the State of World Population 2018 report, released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The report underlined the long-term complexities facing the global population and development issue, as well as the importance of rights of having sex and reproductive health for everyone, said Wang, also the standing vice president of China Family Planning Association and former Vice Minister of National Health and Family Planning Commission of China.

China has made extraordinary efforts to implement the Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, especially in reforming its administrative approach towards a client-oriented approach in family planning, the UNFPA Representative in China Babatunde Ahonsi said.

The new fertility policy announced in 2015 is a start to focus on the role of family planning in protecting the health of the population of reproductive age in China, he said.

Family size is closely linked with reproductive rights, which, in turn, are tied to many other rights, the report says.

However, most couples cannot have the number of children they want because they either lack economic and social support to achieve their preferred family size, or the means to control their fertility. The unmet need for modern contraception prevents hundreds of millions of women from choosing smaller families, according to the report.