China’s shrinking population is a problem for everyone

Despite

the rollback of its one-child policy

and even after more recent incentives urging families to have more children,

China’s population is steadily shrinking

– a momentous shift that will soon leave India as the world’s most-populous nation and have broad rippling effects both domestically and globally.

The change puts China on the same course of both ageing and shrinking as many of its neighbours in Asia, but its path will have outsize effects not just on the regional economy, but on the world at large as well.