[A comparative study on fertility transitions in China and Taiwan in historical perspective]

"Mainland China and Taiwan have both successfully undergone remarkable transitions from high to low fertility in recent decades. Comparing the transitions of the two Chinese populations brings out striking similarities in the changes in age patterns of fertility, but distinctive contrasts between the trends and speed of declines.... An overview of the history of population dynamics in the past 500 years reaffirms the assertion that fertility and mortality rates in ancient China were primarily reflections of biological responses to population pressure on resources. The results of the regression analysis of this study demonstrates that this density-dependent relationship has gradually vanished as the deliberate control of fertility prevails in contemporary China and Taiwan. The prevalence of fertility control is in large part attributable in Taiwan to the rational response of the population to changes in economic and social conditions that favor fewer children while the size of families in China is largely prescribed by the government there." (SUMMARY IN ENG)