Marxism and Chinese Population Policies

This paper addresses the compatibility of Marxism with policies of planned childbirth and the relationship between Chinese population programs and economic modernization. The paper argues that family planning is not only consistent with Marxism but is fundamental to its whole notion of socioeconomic transformation. The posture adopted by the Chinese on the population question during the 1970s and early 1980s appears largely consistent with the conceptual framework initially set forth by Marx and Engels and stands as a significant application of it. China's efforts regulating births in order to improve the welfare of its population have a much different orientation than the actions normally suggested by quasi-Malthusians. China has succeded in realizing the historical significance of the population question, that is, the coordination of material production and procreation subject to a Marxian-socialist transformation.