PIP: In April 1993, the Minister and Vice Minister of the Chinese State Family Planning (FP) Commission held a news conference for Chinese and foreign journalists on population and FP. The Chinese FP program has lowered the birth rate by .5% in 5 years, thus adverting 15 million births. A 1992 survey of 385,000 people showed that the number of acceptors increased 12.3% during 1988-92, and unplanned births declined by 54.7% in the same period. Early marriage were 48% less frequent; marriage age increased from 21.8 to 22.5 years. The fertility rate has experienced this rapid decline because efforts were strengthened in the past 2 years. Despite achieving below replacement level fertility, efforts will continue to enact the current FP policy. Whereas the sex ratio is higher than international standards (111.3 vs. 106), China has instituted and publicized laws and incentives designed to improve the status of women and enhance the equality of women. The phenomenon of "converse elimination," which occurs with urban intellectuals being confined to one child, whereas rural inhabitants have more children, is a natural result of the condition of rural life which makes more children necessary because of the practical daily problems rural inhabitants face. China's population policy, however, is designed to stress both population control and improvement of the quality of human resources. The current policy was devised as a response to conditions which are unlikely to change before the year 2000. Rural areas require access to education, health care, and culture. The policy includes the use of incentives and disincentives for Fp workers, and this system is subject to abuse. The objective of the incentives and disincentives is encouraged and citizens have recourse in the courts if officials behave irresponsibly. A more favorable environment for FP will be created as China moves toward a socialist market economy. As labor migration from rural to urban areas increases, however, FP management will have to be combined with employment credentials to monitor possible unplanned births.