The government's decision earlier this week to persist in its pursuit of a family planning policy is sensible and well thought-out. But to have a resource friendly population size, the world's most populous country needs a shift in its family planning strategy.

China fares poorly in a World Bank ranking of 153 countries in terms of per capita share of the world's natural resources.

Take, for example, drinking water and arable land, the primary resources that a nation needs to feed its population and sustain population growth. China's per capita share is ranked 88th and 67th respectively on the list, or 17 and 40 percent of the world's average.

It would, however, be a misconception to think of China as a less blessed land. The country gets a high ranking when it comes to a nation's share of the world's natural resources. For instance, China ranks sixth in availability of fresh water.

It is only that its resources are stretched thin by a population of 1.3 billion, which, according to forecasts, will increase by 8 to 10 million a year to peak at 1.5 billion by the end of 2033.

So far, there is no evidence pointing to an imminent threat of overpopulation, a demographic stage when resources in a given environment can no longer meet the needs of a growing population.

But unchecked population growth can deplete resources at a speed faster than we could have ever imagined.

China knows better than any other nation that the danger of overpopulation is lurking on the horizon if it does not keep its population growth under control.

The family planning policy has come a long way since it was introduced in the early 1970s. Without such a policy, the government estimates China could now have 400 million more people.

That success was largely the result of a carrot-and-stick approach in enforcing the policy: financial rewards for those complying with the rules and fines for rule breakers.

There is a better and more effective way to slow population growth and eventually bring it down without having to apply coercive measures that at times have painted China in a poor light.

The answer is quickening the pace of urbanization.

Family planning is first and foremost a rural issue in China, where rural residents account for more than 60 percent, or 800 million, of the population.

For urban families, the total fertility rate has slipped well below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. In cosmopolitan cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the fertility rate has been hovering around one birth per woman. How does urbanization help reduce fertility?

For rural communities, an extra child means not only an extra helping hand in sharing the workload and raising farm productivity, but also an extra caregiver and provider for the parents in old age. And it's easier to provide for more children at a subsistence level.

Urban children, in contrast, can often become an economic drain caused by education costs, food and clothing. Longer periods of time spent getting higher education often mean young people have children later in life.

Urbanization can precipitate rural-urban migration. That process creates jobs and wealth that are badly needed by hundreds of millions of surplus rural laborers when they settle down in cities and towns where they'll have their retirements covered by a pension system of one sort or another.

And their children will enjoy easier and better access to education and have more meaningful goals to pursue than having too many births at too early an age.

(China Daily 01/26/2007 page10)