Population decline is now high on the list of reasons, alongside its heavy debts and excessive investments, to doubt that China can sustain rapid GDP growth. Since 2010 a credit binge has run up China’s debts to around 300 percent of GDP, which has been widely discussed. The investment boom that was driving China’s rapid growth has started to unravel and is now leaving development ghost towns all over the country. But the fallout from the depopulation bomb is at least as damaging to growth.
