▲Students going home from school in Beijing / Beijing-Kim Nam-hee, correspondent
China has been angered again by predictions that India will overtake China this year to become the world’s most populous country. China’s official media criticized Western media for deliberately spreading the theory that China’s economy will decline due to population decline in order to slander China.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) announced on the 19th that the population of India will reach 1,428.6 million by the middle of this year, 2.9 million more than China (1,425.7 million). bottom. China’s population is mainland China.
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▲Students going home from school in Beijing / Beijing-Kim Nam-hee, correspondent
China has been angered again by predictions that India will overtake China this year to become the world’s most populous country. China’s official media criticized Western media for deliberately spreading the theory that China’s economy will decline due to population decline in order to slander China.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) announced on the 19th that the population of India will reach 1,428.6 million by the middle of this year, 2.9 million more than China (1,425.7 million). bottom. China’s population is for mainland China only, and does not include Hong Kong, Macao, or Taiwan, which China claims to be its own territory. The United Nations did not specify when the “mid-year” it proposed as when India’s population will overtake China’s. The United Nations said it was impossible to pinpoint when India’s last population figures were in 2011, and the release of the population figures scheduled for 2021 was postponed due to the coronavirus.
It has long been speculated that China will overtake India in terms of population this year. In July last year, the United Nations predicted that India will surpass China in 2023 to become the world’s most populous country.
The Chinese government’s announcement last year that China’s population began to decline for the first time in 61 years reinforced that view. China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced in January this year that China’s population at the end of 2022 was 1,411.75 million, down about 800,000 from the end of the previous year. China’s population has declined for the first time since 1961. This is the result of the declining number of newborns and declining fertility rates. The number of newborns in China in 2022 was 9.56 million, falling below 10 million for the first time since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The number of newborns per 1,000 population was 6.77 in 2010, lower than in 2009 (7.52). In response to the declining population, the Chinese government has abolished the policy of limiting the number of children to two in May 2021 and introduced a policy of allowing a third child.
It was predicted that China would overtake India in terms of population. Despite this, the Chinese side expressed displeasure because it believes that the Western media are maliciously exaggerating the Chinese economic decline.
China Central Television (CCTV) said on the 20th that “Western media reports that China has overtaken India in terms of population deliberately ignore China’s development in order to slander China.” bottom. In particular, CCTV said, “The United States is using the United Nations report to curb China’s development,” and that “Western views that simply equate population with development achievements do not understand the laws of population development.” pointed out. The rationale is that the declining fertility rate and declining desire to have children due to the development of human society is a common problem throughout the world. Wang Wenbin, Deputy Spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a regular briefing the day before, “Population is important, but so is talent. China’s development momentum is strong.”
Beijing-Kim Nam-hee Correspondent
Chosun Ilbo / Chosun Ilbo Japanese version
(c) Chosunonline.com
