On Thursday, China's state broadcaster CCTV denounced Western media reports on China's population being overtaken by India, accusing them of deliberately ignoring China's development and using the topic to disparage the nation and promote decoupling.
CCTV's strongly worded commentary asserted that Western media's underlying message in recent years was that China's development faced significant challenges, and as its demographic dividend vanishes, both China and the global economy would experience decline.
The commentary stated, "They slandered all the way, and China has developed all the way, creating a miracle of sustainable and stable economic development with a huge population."
Data released by the United Nations on Wednesday indicated that India is surpassing China as the world's most populous country and will have nearly 3 million more people than its neighbor by mid-2022.
CCTV accused the United States of intensifying efforts to constrain China's development and promoting further decoupling, using the United Nations report as a new talking point. The broadcaster added that the West wrongly equates population size with development accomplishments.
CCTV emphasized, "Such hype lacks a basic understanding of the law of population development. With the development of human society today, the decrease in birth rate and decline in willingness to bear children are common problems faced by the whole world." The commentary also pointed out that Western developed countries generally face issues such as labor shortages.
In 2021, China's population decreased for the first time in 60 years, marking a historic shift anticipated to bring a long period of citizen number decline, with significant implications for its economy and the world.
Wang Wenbin, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, stated that population dividends rely not only on quantity but also on quality. He said, "Population is important but talents are also important...China has taken active measures to respond to population aging."
A 40-year-old finance professional, Liu, in Beijing's Guomao business district, acknowledged India's population surpassing China as an "inevitable phenomenon" but maintained that China's economic strength would prevail. He added that India's population growth "does not have any major impact on us. It doesn't affect us much."
