China Replaces Birth Control Official

China replaced its minister in charge of birth control today following official criticism over an accelerating population growth caused by millions of families ignoring a one-child-per-family rule.

Wang Wei, who had headed the State Family Planning Commission since 1983, was replaced by a woman, Peng Peiyun, the official New China News Agency said.

Chinese sources said that under Wang the commission had played down the importance last year of alarming new statistics on the growth of China’s 1.072-billion population. According to those statistics, compiled by the separate State Statistical Bureau, China’s population is growing at the fastest rate for four years, threatening to wreck plans to limit population to within 1.2 billion in the year 2000.