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The onslaught was led by a bizarre alliance of Communist and Latin American countries. According to these delegations, overpopulation is a myth invented by the rich to exploit and subjugate the poor. Soviet Deputy Minister of Health Lev Volodarsky contended that high population-growth rates have "nothing to do with the real reason for backwardness and only serve to distract attention from needed social reforms." Huang Shu-tse, Deputy Minister of Health for China, which has the world's greatest population (800 million), declared that development lags were caused by exploitation by both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., and "the large population of the Third World is an important condition for the fight against imperialism." Even India, which has one of the world's most acute problems in feeding its 550 million people, failed to defend the U.S. proposals, claiming that fertility controls were doomed as long as rich countries waste their resources and indulge in "superconsumerism." As the conference ended last week, the final recommendation put forward by the delegates linked family planning with "socioeconomic development," which requires massive infusions of foreign aid. Many underdeveloped nations were obviously unwilling as yet to accept openly responsibility for coping with overpopulation and its resultant hunger. Still, the conference had at least focused attention on these grave problems. When the ideological heat cools down, some progress may be made in resolving them.