Yet, as argued by Caldwell (1998), Malthus's essay played a powerful role in the establishment of family planning programmes in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other countries. Lee and Feng (1999) examine the influence of Malthus on Chinese population policy and say that Malthusian focus on the potentially precarious balance between population and resources is one of the central present day preoccupations. Therefore, it should not cause any surprise if the Malthusian pronouncement can be located in the population policy of a communist country or a concern with the institutional changes can be found in the capitalist thinking about population control programmes. The goals of the national policies are chiefly determined by the economic and demographic profile of the population. In the countries where population is stationary or is declining and the level of development of productive forces is high, there is a pro-natalist policy; and in the countries where population growth is rapid and the level of development is low, there is an anti-natalist policy, directly or indirectly, strong or weak. There is a need to maintain a balance between population and resources. It is not a controversial issue now. Thus a document of Chinese Population Policy says:

Confronting us today are two possibilities either we control population growth strictly and effectively or we exercise no strict control, carry cut no effective measures, and let the population continue to grow, thus leading to a state in which neither the people's living standard can be improved nor our economic, cultural and defense construction can be successfully carried out. Our option will certainly be one of these two possibilities. We believe that the comrades of the whole party and the people of the whole country can soberly realize the seriousness of this issue, and will voluntarily implement the policy and stipulations regarding the control of the population. (Chinese Population Policy Draft, 1982).