我们的拙作《略论我国人口近期宜取负数发展》一文,在《华南师院学报》一九八○年第一期发表并经《光明日报》三月九日摘要刊登后,对我们的观点,有的同志表示赞同,有的同志表示反对。争论的中心是:近期内我国人口要不要和能不能采取负数发展,负数发展会不会引起人口老年化而带来新的“人口问题”。无论是赞同或反对的同志,都提出一些发人深思的见解,它对于进一步讨论这个具有战略意义的问题,是很有教益的。我们认为,争论实际上已超越了要不要负数发展本身,而且已涉及到婚姻生育观和人口政策等一系列的新问题,我们愿意进一步阐述我们的观点,以就教于同志们。必须总结历史教训,引以为鉴探讨我国的人口问题,很有必要先回顾一下历史经验教训。一九四九年全国解放的时候,我国的人口估计是五亿四千八百多万,到一九五三年,就达到六亿一百多万。以后,在很长时期内,我国人口自然增长率都高达千分之二十。由于我国人口基数庞大,每年递增的结果,就达到了目前近十亿人口的这个爆炸数字。对于我国人口问题的爆炸性后果,有识之士早就提出警告。在我国实行第一个五年计划期间,以著名经济学家马寅初先生为代表,就适时地发表了《新人口论》,主张节制生育,控制人口增长。他提出的理由很简单,大规模建设社会主义需要资? Our myth, “A Brief Comment on the Population in Our Country Should Take a Negative Number in the Near Future,” was published in the first issue of South China Normal University in 1980 and after the summary was published in the Guangming Daily on March 9, Some comrades expressed their approval and some comrades expressed their opposition. The centerpiece of the debate is whether or not our population should and can not adopt a negative development in the near future and whether negative development will lead to a new “population problem” due to the aging of the population. Both comrades, who agree or disagree, have come up with some thought-provoking ideas and are instructive in further discussing this strategic issue. In our opinion, the debate has in fact gone beyond the need for negative development itself and it has touched upon a series of new issues such as the concept of marriage and childbearing. We are willing to elaborate our point of view further to teach to our comrades. We must sum up lessons from history and use it as a mirror to explore the population issue in our country. It is necessary to review historical lessons first. When the entire country was liberated in 1949, our population was estimated at over 548 million. By 1953, it amounted to over 600 million. After a long period of time, the natural growth rate of our population will be as high as 20%. Due to the huge population of our country, as a result of the annual increase, we have reached the number of explosions currently estimated at nearly 1 billion people. For the explosive consequences of our population problem, people of insight have long warned. During the implementation of the first five-year plan in our country, the “new population theory” was published in a timely manner in light of the famous economist Ma Yinchu, advocating birth control and population growth control. The reason he has put forward is very simple, requiring large-scale construction of socialism.