Gueorguiev Quoted in NBC News Article on India Overtaking China as World’s Most Populous Country

May 1, 2023

NBC

Dimitar Gueorguiev

Political Science Department

South Asia Center

China

India

International Affairs

NBC

Dimitar Gueorguiev

New data from the United Nations Population Fund projects India will soon overtake China as the world's most populous country.

Chinese officials and state media have accused America and the West of using it as another excuse to "bad mouth" Beijing, stating they are focusing only on population size, rather than education, industrial output and economic clout—the last one seeing China dwarf India several times over.

What matters to China is consumer and investor confidence, "so it is not hard to see why Chinese officials are pushing back on the argument that a population decline spells economic decline," says Dimitar Gueorguiev, associate professor of political science.

To China, being the most populous nation "doesn’t count for anything" in and of itself, he says. What's important is "to be seen as a developing, modern, and functional country."

Read more in the NBC News article, "China is concerned about much more than India outgrowing its population."