Ask Lemmygrad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_China

"National Economy – 10.Total Population Went down and Urbanization Rate Continued to Grow (31 December 2024)". www.stats.gov.cn. National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC). 17 January 2025. Retrieved 17 January 2025.

It seems like robust assertion to me. For the final analysist I'm no expert in chinese questions.

Ok i've found something on one of my national media, 2023.

For context "lefigaro" is a right wing conservative french paper. It's interviewing PA Donnet.

Pierre-Antoine Donnet is a experimented journalist with significant knowledge and experience with China since ~1980 (he was not happy with the Tibet events around 1985 and was present physicaly here for the Agence France Presse, the primary main source of most mainstream french media - independant medias have their own investigations). He's been cited twice on mediapart (independant leftist journal very respected here) on the topic.

He says basically:

• China population declined officially in 2022, and "it started before despite the official source" as part of the source of the problem
• PIB growth lower than targets and historical values, as a symptome of vicious circle
• Some talk about the CCP internal conflict

I guess he's the primary source, but I don't want to buy his book to give you a summary :D

I'll see if I can find my source back just in case we can get something more specific. From memory it was about China going back under 1 billion people over the next 50-100 years or something