CHINA’S TRUE CRISIS, AND THE TRAP THE CCP HAS SET FOR THE CHINESE PEOPLE
By: Bai Ding – Jan 29, 2024
On Tuesday, January 16 the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics released the country’s latest demographic figures. China’s total population was 1.409 billion in 2023, a decrease of 2.08 million people from 2022. In 2022, China’s total population declined for the first time since the last year of the Great Leap Forward famine in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when it declined by 850,000.
Data from the bureau show that the accelerated shrinkage of China’s total population in 2023 can be attributed to two trends. First, in 2023 China’s population death rate rose to the highest point since the Great Famine, reaching 7.87 per 1,000 people. The number of deaths throughout the year was 11.1 million, an increase of 6.6% from 2022. Second, the birth rate dropped to 6.39 per 1,000, the lowest point in recorded history, and the number of newborns was 9.02 million, a decrease of 5.7% compared with 2022.
Unlike in previous years, when Chinese state media published numerous warnings about the population crisis, after the release of the census figures this time they were unusually calm, and have rarely raised the topic of the population crisis. The semi-official media Caixin.com on January 24 published a commentary, “Is the Serious Decreasing Birthrate a Family Affair or a State Affair?”, pointing out that “the total fertility rate is around 1.0, which is less than half of the replacement level, and one of the lowest in the world.” However, the article focused on discussing the causes of low fertility and did not emphasize the crisis nature of the situation as before. The official media Sina Finance on January 18, 2024 also published a signed article, “How to view China’s population data in 2023?” the next day, which emphasized that “in the next 10 years, our country will still be in the demographic-dividend period, with the 30-40 and 50-60 year-old groups remaining at a high level, and labor resources are thus still relatively sufficient.”
Well, does China’s declining birth rate and a total population that is no longer growing in fact constitute a crisis?…. [Continue Reading]
Source: https://www.yibao.net/2024/01/29/chinas-true-crisis-and-the-trap-the-ccp-has-set-for-the-chinese-people/