当第70亿个人类居民降临这旋转不停的蔚蓝色星球，人们感受到了“人口时钟”加速运转的节奏。从10亿增加到20亿，人类用了100年；从20亿到30亿，用了30年；而从60亿到70亿，只用了12年。面对70亿地球人，立足13亿中国人，我们要更好地把握机遇与挑战共存的局面。一个很小的问题，乘以70亿，都会变成一个大问题；一个很大的挑战，除以70亿，就可能获得化解的契机。

The statistics from the United Nations Population Fund shows that China's total population has reached 1.34 billion. However, the size of Chinese families has decreased from 4.41 persons per family during the early 1980s down to 3.1 persons per family in 2010.

Zhai Zhenwu, a professor from the School of Sociology and Population Studies at Renmin University explains the deceleration of China's population growth.

"China has reduced its population by 400 million in the past several decades as a result of the execution of the family planning policy. Our nation should strive for long-term development with a low-increase, well-structured and balanced population."

Since China began its process of reforms and opening up three decades ago, it has achieved an 8.8 percent average growth rate in GDP per capita annually; four times higher than the world's average. It has become the second largest economy with the fastest economic growth in the world.

But compared with developed nations, China is still lagging behind in terms of labor productivity. China's policy measures regarding population are focusing on the question of how to improve population quality and build the nation into a country strong in terms of human power.

Lu Jiehua, professor from the School of Sociology at Peking University explains.

"It will take at least 30 to 40 years to build China into a nation of powerful human resources, and talented individuals represent the core of such work. It is fundamental to base economic development on the improvement of population quality and the all-round development of the people."

Lu says what is inspiring is that China's infant and maternal mortality rate remains the lowest among developing countries. The average number of years a person is educated in the nation has also increased to nine years.

It is estimated that the world's population will reach seven billion by the end of October this year.

The United Nations Population Fund said in the "2011 World Population Report", issued on Wednesday, that the world's fertility rate has dropped from 5 children per woman in 1950 to 2.5 children per woman today.

For CRI, this is Wei Tong.

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