China | Falling China

For the first time since the 1960s, China’s population is shrinking

Its long reign as the world’s most populous country is probably at an end

Older residents exercise at a park in Beijing, Aug. 12, 2022. Across East Asia, populations are graying faster than anywhere else in the world, and while younger generations shrink, older workers are often toiling well into their 70s and beyond. (Gilles SabriÈ/The New York Times)Credit: New York Times / Redux / eyevineFor further information please contact eyevinetel: +44 (0) 20 8709 8709e-mail: info@eyevine.comwww.eyevine.com — Image: Eyevine

Jan 17th 2023

“We are the last generation.” As news, released on January 17th, that the country’s population had fallen last year for the first time in decades swept Chinese social media, some commenters used these doom-laden words. They have a special resonance in China. During a weeks-long lockdown in Shanghai last year to prevent the spread of covid-19, an angry resident spat them at a hazmat-suited policeman who had warned him that punishment for violating pandemic-control rules would affect the young man’s family for three generations. The retort, captured on a mobile phone, quickly went viral. Now, as its meaning truly sinks in, some are recalling it.

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Struggling to stay on top”