We’ve mentioned in previous Hotlines that China (much like other Asian and European nations) has a severely inverted population pyramid of hundreds of millions of old people, and a shortage of young Chinese. Compare below the age pyramid of the country 25 years ago versus today. China’s aging/population reduction crisis is going to get a lot worse over the coming decades.

Nations with falling populations are not superpowers.

In Hong Kong, where China began erasing some basic freedoms in 2020, the fertility rate has fallen to the lowest in the world. A desperate city government is paying couples who have children a bonus of $2,500 and giving priority on housing lists. But it hasn’t worked.

Here’s one reason the population implosion is going to get worse before it stabilizes. The Chinese aren’t getting married. And, unmarried women have far fewer children.

Xi Jinping’s totalitarian controls on individual liberties are increasingly convincing his citizens not to take a bet on their future.