The Chinese Century Is Already Over

By Yi Fuxian

Chinese leaders have long staked their policies on the assumption of a rising East and declining West, but China is already past its prime. The gap between its declining demographic and economic strength and its expanding strategic ambitions now constitutes a major geopolitical risk.

Madison, Wisconsin – In January, China officially acknowledged that its population began to decline last year – roughly nine years earlier than Chinese demographers and the United Nations had projected. The implications of this are hard to overstate. It means that all of China’s economic, foreign, and defense policies are based on faulty demographic data.