Why are there so many Chinese and does the increase in their population pose a threat to the planet?

According to official data, China's population is already about 1.5 billion people. At the same time, the population of the country, despite the long-term policy of birth control, continues to grow. Why exactly are the Chinese the most numerous nation on the planet and will they eventually occupy the entire planet?

It should be noted right away that the Chinese civilization is the most ancient on our planet. Ancient Egypt, the powerful kingdoms of the Middle East, the city-states of the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas ceased to exist. And the Chinese have been successfully living and developing for more than 5 thousand years. And, it is worth noting that there were always a lot of them when compared with Europeans.

For example, in the II-III century AD, more than 2 million people participated in the uprising of the "yellow bandages" against the Han Dynasty! At the same time, even then the population of China was about 100 million. At the same time, according to various estimates, from 28 to 40 million people lived in Europe at that time.

What is the secret of China's population growth and why did this not happen in Europe, where in the Middle Ages there were 8-10 children in families? There is no secret, by and large, here. The fact is that for a Chinese family, 10 children used to be almost the minimum. In the homes of ordinary peasants, 15-20 dirty offspring of different genders and ages sometimes grew up.

The rich inhabitants of the empire, such as merchants and officials, had several wives and dozens of concubines who regularly gave birth to their master babies. As for the imperial family, there was an even more thorough approach to improving the demographic situation — the emperor of the Han dynasty, already mentioned above, had 700-900 concubines of reproductive age.

The attitude of the Chinese and Westerners towards children also differed somewhat. In medieval Europe, babies were often killed, given to monasteries and orphanages, or simply thrown to strangers. The Chinese treated their heirs much more carefully — any poor person looked at the new baby as another additional chance to escape from poverty. What if he grows up and becomes a man? And if not, then all the same, not just an extra mouth appeared in the family, but a valuable assistant in the household — unpretentious and free.

Life expectancy in China was also higher than in European countries. It is worth mentioning that even the monarchs of the most powerful kingdoms lived very little: King Philip IV of France died at 46, his son Louis X died at 27, Philip V — at 29, and Charles IV ordered to live a long time at 34. The life expectancy of an ordinary citizen, of course, was even lower.

Even in very poor medieval Chinese families, there were elderly people aged 60-70 years. By today's standards, given the standard of living and the achievements of medicine, it can be represented as 120-140 years! The reason for such longevity lay precisely in the extreme poverty of the majority of Chinese. Many residents of the empire have not seen meat for years, eating mostly simple vegetable food — raw or boiled.

The problem of nutrition has always been relevant in China, both three thousand and a hundred years ago. With a huge population, any disasters and miscalculations of the leadership resulted in the extinction of millions of residents of the country. The most famous is the "Great Famine" in 1958-1961, which occurred due to the incompetent management of the state by the Communists led by Mao Zedong.

Improper planning of rice crops, which was the main food of the Chinese, in the middle of the enlightened XX century, without wars and natural disasters, killed more than 36 million citizens. Hunger has always been the main pacifying factor for China. It was the traditions of the nutrition of this people that restrained its expansion to the West for thousands of years. The Chinese did not dare to leave the places inhabited for centuries, with full-flowing rivers giving life-giving moisture to rice fields.

Interestingly, there is a conspiracy theory that claims that the number of Chinese is overestimated by 2 or even 3 times. In confirmation of this, some cite the words of the fugitive leader of the country, Chiang Kai-shek, who in 1962, in an interview with a Taiwanese publication, said that the Communists overestimate the population in order to keep the whole world in fear of the gigantic Chinese army. According to him, in the 60s of the XX century, no more than 400 thousand people lived in the country.

Russian expert on China Kirill Lotkov also casts doubt on the impressive figure generally accepted in the world, arguing that you can name absolutely any number, but it will be almost impossible to check it. Since ancient times, the Celestial Empire has been considered a closed country, so there have never been independent calculations.

Lotkov is sure that the myth of China's huge population is beneficial as an instrument of pressure on neighbors — the figure of 1.5 billion will make anyone reckon with you. His point of view is supported by a publicist from Latvia, Sergey Vasiliev, who compared publicly available figures concerning the grain harvest.

Vasiliev drew attention to the fact that the United States, with a population of 300 million people, collects 485 million tons of grain annually and the country has enough of this amount. The People's Republic of China reports on the collection of 546 million tons of grain with almost 1.5 billion inhabitants. Here, however, it is worth considering that the main product in China is still rice.

Some point to a strange discrepancy in the post-war population. After the war with Japan (1937-1945), China claimed 30 million dead, but at the same time, just a couple of years later, it joyfully reported a 60 million increase in residents. We can confidently say only one thing — if the Chinese authorities are lying, it is almost impossible to convict them of this.

But in the event that there are still as many Chinese as they claim, how do they manage to feed themselves? Apparently, China has not been starving for a long time. Most of the country's agricultural lands are located along the large Yellow and Yangtze Rivers. In the early 80s of the XX century, the country, which had been buying food abroad for a long time before, was able to fully provide itself with everything necessary.

At the end of the 80s, everything was already so well that the republic began exporting food to its neighbors. Many of our fellow citizens remember the "Great Wall" stew, sausages and pates in metal cans that appeared on our shelves during the years of perestroika.

The viability of the huge agricultural sector that fed the country was maintained in a simple and effective way, typical of many socialist countries. Until the early 2000s, rural residents were forbidden to leave their villages and towns and move to cities. Currently, such consolidation is not practiced — the government uses other methods to interest peasants in farming.

Today, various benefits are provided for the population employed in the agricultural sector. For example, if a person is engaged in pig breeding, then he is exempt from paying taxes for three years. In addition, he can count on an interest—free loan for the purchase of equipment if he decides to organize his production of finished products - sausages or semi-finished products.

China, which has been hungry enough for its history, is very attentive to food production today. The communist government of the country is confident that overproduction is better than food shortages, which can result in a national disaster.

China also does not hide the fact that sometimes it is easier for them to buy provisions from less developed neighbors. Rice is imported into the country in decent quantities from Thailand and Vietnam, but this no longer speaks of distress, but of well-being. Every year the quality of food is improving in the country and the People's Republic is purposefully moving towards leading world positions in the production of healthy and affordable food.

And what if the number of Chinese is not overstated, but, on the contrary, understated? There is also such a conspiracy theory. Everyone knows that in 1979-2015, China had a special state policy of birth control. "One family — one child", and if you want a second or, God forbid, a third, then be prepared for an impressive fine, which, depending on the place of residence, ranged from 4 to 8 average annual salaries!

Thus, having many children has become a privilege of very wealthy families, and everyone else has to be content with one offspring or ... carefully hide the replenishment. It is possible that today there are from 100 to 300 million Chinese living in the country, whose birth was hidden by their poor parents from the official authorities.

These unfortunate people never went to kindergarten or school and had to replenish a huge army of low-skilled workers in such megacities as Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shenzhen. These people are not counted anywhere, but they cannot be discounted, since many of them already have their own children who also live illegally in their native country.

But if the whole world is trembling at the thought that the Chinese will soon fill the whole planet, then the government of the Celestial Empire believes that not everything is so clear. In their opinion, the population of the country is catastrophically aging and, if this trend continues, then in 20-30 years there will be no one to work and China will lose the hard-won status of the "world factory".

It was anxiety for the future that caused the weakening of birth control in 2015. The Chinese were allowed to have not one, but two children. Again, it is difficult to say how true the information about the population decline is, since all the data are obtained exclusively from Chinese sources, without their assessment by independent experts.

In January 2019, the South China Morning Post reported that for the first time in many decades, the country's population has not increased, but decreased. Journalists claim that in 2018 the population of the country decreased by 1 million 27 thousand people. They believe that the reason for the decline is that the younger generation is moving away from traditional values and not only does not want to have several children, but also refuses even one.

Instead, the modern youth of China gives priority to study, career, business and entertainment. There are much fewer women in the country than men, education and medicine are paid, and it becomes more and more difficult to dress and feed a child every year.

Many believe that China, which for many centuries has threatened the whole world with its uncontrolled population growth, will soon begin to die out. This point of view may be too panicky, but the Chinese themselves see the situation in their country that way.