Limited Control

In their early years, the Chinese Communists rejected birth control as "a means of killing off the Chinese people without shedding blood." But the population grew so rapidly that Peking began urging couples to marry late and produce no more than two children. In some areas, families were denied food and clothing coupons for their third and subsequent babies. Now, with the population approaching 800 million, the regime is resorting to methods more reliable than either propaganda or pressure, including abortion and sterilization. It has also acquired a Japanese-made machine that manufactures condoms at the rate of 50 million a year--which is only a start. "Well," observed a veteran Sinologist in Hong Kong last week, "that takes care of the night of Jan. 1."

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