For years now, China has been on the world’s radar as a potential global power that could top the United States in economic might, but one major factor may prevent that, and it has President Xi Jinping worried: a population collapse.
The impending collapse of China’s population is causing a “closing window of opportunity” that may cause Xi to act “more provocative, more belligerent,” one China expert told Fox News in an interview.
“Xi must be in a panic. His primary form of diplomacy is to intimidate others,” Gordon Chang told Fox News. “If you’re going to have the world’s largest economy, if you’re going to be the most populous society, yeah, you can intimidate others.”
“But if your country is rapidly shrinking, and that’s what’s going to happen to China, then no one’s going to be particularly scared,” he continued.
China's population fell in 2022 to 1.411 billion, down about 850,000 people from the previous year.
The impending collapse of China’s population could spur President Xi Jinping to be "more provocative, more belligerent," a China expert said. https://t.co/CewoLq7TwP pic.twitter.com/YvbHaxjaE7
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China’s population is in decline, having dropped in 2022 to 1.411 billion, down 850,000 people from last year, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics said. This was the first decline in population since Mao Zedong’s murderous Great Leap Forward, an economic program that led to millions dead.
A UN forecast predicts that China’s population will decrease by 100 million by 2050, and a drop of 600 million by 2100 due to an aging population.
“Population decline will severely undercut the ability of the economy to grow,” Chang said. “China’s demographic dividend was largely responsible for the growth of the Chinese economy in the ’80s and ’90s. That was an extraordinary bulge in the workforce. Now we are seeing the opposite of that.”
China’s population has been number one in the world since the 1950s, when the US started taking records. India will take over China for that spot by April of this year, the UN report shows.
“This is going to be really traumatic for China,” Chang told Fox News. “Being a part of the world’s most populous tribe is really a matter of pride for the Chinese.”
“To have India overtake China is adding insult to injury, at least in Chinese minds, because they view Indians as inferior,” he added.
