China's population increases as human rights issues remain unresolved

Based on the latest 2010 census reports, the population of China has risen from 1.27 billion to 1.339 billion in the last decade, a total increase of 73 million people or 5.7%.  This increase is actually right on track with projections of a 2010 population of 1.34 billion and was a smaller increase than the previous decade.  Demographically, China is also changing.  People under the age of 14 now make up only 17% of the population, which is down 6%.  This means that as the workforce is aging and there will be less young people to take over the jobs.  There has also been a great shift from rural to urban life.  Urban populations now consist of half of the total population, having increased by 13%, and the amount of migrant laborers, rural Chinese that migrate to cities to work in factories, has risen by 81%.  Family size has shrunk from 3.4 people per family to 3.1 - evidence that the one-child policy has been effective at controlling population growth.  China is also becoming more educated, with a 3% increase in literacy rates - now only 4% of the Chinese population cannot read - and 9% of the population has received university-level education - more than doubling in the last decade.  The most surprising statistic has been the gender ratio.  In recent years, there had been fears that the male population would far outnumber the female population due to the one-child policy and the favoring of male children.  However, as of 2010, the Chinese population is 51% male and 49% female.  Since the first Chinese census 60 years ago, the population has more than doubled.  All of these changes present challenges to China, both economically, with an aging population and a migrant laborer population of over 200 million searching for work, as well as politically, as uniting 1.34 billion people in a "harmonious society" has led to human rights violations and crackdowns on Christians, lawyers and artists.
The US recently met with Chinese officials in Beijing to present their grievances on China's internal human rights practices.  US Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Michael Posner led the talks, condemning the way the Chinese government has handled recent Jasmine-style revolutions and asking where disappeared activists are.  Posner was unsatisfied with the Chinese response, as they simply opposed foreign interference in their domestic politics and presented the US as "aggressive" and as a Western pressure in state-run media.  The US claims it is not pressuring the Chinese government, but merely asking questions that many Chinese citizens have been asking themselves.  Posner ultimately sees the current refusal to cooperate on this issue as a "serious backslide" considering that in January President Hu Jintao told President Obama that China still had a lot to do in terms of human rights.  Next month, Chinese and the US officials will meet in Washington for the Strategic and Economic Dialogue and again in June for a dialogue between legal experts.

Mark Zajac