La Chine : quelles politiques démographiques ?
Isabelle Attané
China is the largest demographic power in the world.
Population control, whether it is a matter of growth, distribution throughout
the country or its mobility, has thus been a major issue there since the 1950s
and has been the object of various authoritarian policies aimed at serving
interests that are as much economic as political and strategic. Since the creation of the People’s Republic in 1949, two distinct phases have left their
imprint on the country: first, “hardcore” socialism under Mao Zedong until
the late 1970s, then economic liberalism with the reforms Deng Xiaoping
launched in 1978. Despite this about-face related to remodeling the economic system, the underlying aims of these population policies maintained a
certain continuity. Among those that have left the most visible traces on
China’s demographic landscape: mobility control, which long allowed it to
contain urban development; its rebalancing of regional development, which
is part of its aim to unify the country; and last, the birth control policy, at the
root of an accelerated demographic transition. This article sets out to examine the context in which such policies were implemented and how they may
have changed over the past decades.
• Contrôler la mobilité géographique
• Rééquilibrer le développement régional
• Contrôler la croissance démographique
• Quel avenir pour ces politiques ?