In a startling revelation, the Chinese government disclosed that last year, deaths surpassed births for the first time since the disastrous Great Leap Forward in the 1960s. With 9.56 million births and 10.41 million deaths, the ominous imbalance signals a deepening demographic crisis. China’s birth rate has collapsed completely, marking a stark contrast from the 19.7 million births registered in 2012 to a mere 7.8 million births in 2023. This alarming decline accentuates the severity of the situation.