China's National Population and Family Planning Commission Director Zhang Weiqing on Tuesday in an online forum said Chinese officials would continue to "unswervingly implement" the nation's one-child-per-family policy as the country faces a peak in births, the Kyodo News reports (Kyodo News, 3/21). Zhang said that as a result of the policy, China had 400 million fewer people at the end of 2005 than it would have had without the policy. He added that lifting the one-child policy would strain the country's resources, environment and goals for sustainable growth, the South China Morning Post reports (South China Morning Post, 3/22). The birthrate in China is 1.8 children per couple, down from 2.1 children per couple in 1990 and 5.83 in the early 1970s. The central government expects to have a population of 1.36 billion by 2010. Zhang said officials plan to increase efforts to stop the use of ultrasound scans and sex-selective abortions as a means of promoting a gender imbalance favoring male children (Toy, Sydney Morning Herald, 3/23). The Chinese government came under scrutiny in recent months after human rights advocate Chen Guangcheng recorded testimony from men and women in communities in and around Linyi, China, who had experienced forced abortions and sterilizations under the one-child policy (South China Morning Post, 3/21).