The results of the last Chinese census, expected for more than a month, are long overdue.
A delay to be linked to the expected decline in the population, five years after the end of the one-child policy?
How many millions less Chinese?
The question is not so innocent, as the results of the Middle Empire census have been waiting for more than a month now.
According to the
Financial Times
, "China is about to report its first population decline since the Great Leap Forward famine" in the late 1950s.
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India soon more populated than China
Difficult, therefore, not to connect this delay - officially explained by a "preparation work" more important than expected - and the unprecedented fall in the birth rate that is coming. The report is even advanced by the state press: the Chinese population should decline from 2027. And India could be more populated than China from next year, according to the
Global Times
. The Xinhua Agency explains for its part that it is especially in the eastern provinces, the richest, that the inhabitants have the fewest children because of the cost of living.
According to the correspondent of the
Financial Times
in China, Beijing could even be tempted by a forced birth policy ... A hell of a turnaround for a country where one child was the rule until 2016. However, this information is not officially confirmed. According to
Courrier international
, the Chinese version of the article in the British daily was quickly deleted from the Weibo social network.