The Total Population Chart The figures shown in the chart of total population were based on the Chinese State Statistical Bureau's published figures. The figures for 1987 was taken on the basis of a count done among 10,711,652 people, that is, one percent of the total, chosen from 1045 counties or cities in all of 29 provinces, autonomous regions, and cities under control of the PRC. The Chinese government was extremely reticent about releasing population (and other) statistics from the late 1950s until the end of the 1970s. Even the existence, let alone the results, of the 1964 census was not revealed until years after the event.

The One-Child Policy In 1980, Premier Hua Guofeng announced the policy of restricting each couple (except among the minority nationalities) to one child only, and to limiting the total population to 1.2 billion by the end of the 20th century. For a while this policy succeeded to some extent in reducing the population growth rate, but from 1984 exemptions were increasingly allowed, especially for peasants whose first child was a girl. In the late 1980s the government issued statements recognizing the failure of this goal. In 1988. The People's Daily reported that some provincial officials had deliberately falsified the figures for 1987.