According to China, it still has over 900 million 'quality' workers, with India set to overtake it as the most populated country

China's?population?and?skills?are?both?vital,?according?to?Chinese?Foreign?Ministry?spokesman?Wang?Wenbin.

China sought to minimise India's imminent overtake as the world's most populous nation on Wednesday, claiming that it still has a "quality" workforce of around?900 million people to give a strong drive for development.

According to the most recent United Nations Population Fund figures, India's population is expected to reach 142.86 crores by the middle of 2023, compared to China's 142.57 crores.

When asked about the claim, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a press conference in Beijing, "I want to tell you that population dividend does not depend only on quantity but also on quality."

He emphasised the importance of population and skill in China, the world's second-largest economy after the United States.

"China has a population of over 1.4 billion people." "Those of working age number close to 900 million, with an average of 10.5 years of education," he stated.

Mr Wang also stated that China has made proactive measures to address the country's ageing population.

"As Premier Li Qiang pointed out, our population dividend has not vanished, and our talent dividend is thriving, and the impetus for development is strong," Mr Wang remarked.

According to a new UNFPA report, 25% of India's population is between the ages of 0 and 14, 18% is between the ages of 10 and 19, 26% is between the ages of 10 and 24, 68% is between the ages of 15 and 64, and 7% are over the age of 65.

High-calibre workforce In his first press conference with Premier Li Qiang, he stated, "When assessing demographic dividend, we will look not only at the sheer size of the population but also at the scale of the high-calibre workforce." Mr Li observed that China has approximately 900 million working-age individuals and 15 million people joining the workforce each year, despite China's deepening demographic dilemma caused by dropping birth rates and an expanding elderly population.

According to him, more than 240 million individuals in China have gotten higher education, and the average duration of schooling gained by entrants to the workforce has climbed to 14 years.

China's demographic issue worsened in 2022 when the birth rate fell by 8.50 lakh individuals to 1.4118 billion.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China's overall population would fall by 850,000 people year on year to 1.4118 billion in 2022, with a natural growth rate of -0.6 per 1,000 people.

According to the National Health Commission, there were 264 million persons over the age of 60 in mainland China by the end of 2020, and that figure is expected to rise to 400 million by 2035, accounting for more than 30% of China's population.

China's demographic issue has been widely linked to the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC)'s decades-long One-China policy, which was enacted to manage the population.

China's current worry is not merely a shrinking population, which was exacerbated by the decades-old Child policy, which was repealed in 2016, but also a fast ageing population. The updated policy allows the Chinese to have three children.

In May 2021, China enacted a third-child policy and a slew of stimulus measures to stimulate population growth. Across the country, several towns, provinces, and regions have implemented incentive programmes such as providing subsidies to families having a second or third child.

According to the NBS, the country had 9.56 million new births last year, down from 10.62 million in 2021.

In 2022, China's birth rate was 6.77 births per 1,000 people, down from 7.52 in 2021.

Cai Fang, former deputy head of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has stated that China's overall population number peaked in 2022, far earlier than projected, implying that the country's population will retain negative growth from 2023 or enter a period of negative growth.

Yuan Xin, a professor at Nankai University's School of Economics and the Institute of Population and Development, told the official media in January that negative population growth is unavoidable in 2022 due to the country's long-term low fertility rate, and China's population has entered an era of zero growth.

(Sources: PTI, The Hindu )

Beijing