China’s National Bureau of Statistics recently published census data that showed the country’s population is ageing and its growth slowing sooner than anticipated. Last year’s population growth was the slowest since the Great Leap Forward in 1959-1961. If births continue to decline this year, then China’s population could have already peaked, which raises longer-term economic and policy questions. The most remarkable data point has been the drop in total births , which was as much as 11.5 per cent last year. There is evidence that the pandemic is partially to blame; in Hubei province, which was the epicentre of the…