China criticises international media coverage of its declining population

‘They slandered all the way and China has developed all the way’

Commuters rush to catch their trains at a subway station during the morning rush hour in Beijing (AP)

A Chinese state broadcaster has slammed international media reports for "bad-mouthing" the country after UN data suggested India is set to overtake the Asian giant as the world’s most populous nation.

According to the UN Population Fund’s (UNFPA) State of World Population Report, India’s population will be nearly three million more than China’s by the middle of 2023.

Modelling suggests India’s population will be 1.4286 billion by the middle of the year, against 1.4257 billion for China.

The goverment-run CCTV channel issued a sharply worded commentary claiming that the subtext from Western media in recent years was that China's development was in "big trouble" and that when China's demographic dividend disappears, it would decline, which would also affect the global economy.

"They slandered all the way and China has developed all the way, creating a miracle of sustainable and stable economic development with a huge population,” the CCTV op-ed said.

CCTV said that the US is "stepping up efforts to contain China's development" and "advocate further decoupling and found new hype points from the United Nations report", adding that the West simply equated population size with development achievements.

"Such hype lacks a basic understanding of the law of population development. With the development of human society today, the decrease in birth rate and decline in willingness to bear children are common problems faced by the whole world," CCTV said.

In 2022, Cina's population fell for the first time in six decades, a historic turn expected to have profound implications for its economy and the world.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Wednesday said population dividends did not only depend on quantity but also on quality.

"As premier Li Qiang pointed out our population dividend has not disappeared and our talent dividend is booming and the impetus is strong for development," Mr Wang told reporters.

"Population is important but talents are also important... China has taken active measures to respond to population aging," he said, adding that China still had a "quality" workforce of close to 900 million people.

According to the UN report, New Delhi is the most populated city in India, with 30 million inhabitants followed by financial hub Mumbai, with 20 million.

The eastern city of Kolkata has 15 million inhabitants, while tech hub Bengaluru has 12 million residents.

The 2023 data shows the US comes in a distant third after India and China, with an estimated 340 million population. The data reflects information available as of February 2023, according to the report.