China’s population is shrinking, fast

The declining population of China is a well-known problem so much that its one-child policy was progressively loosened and the scrapped altogether. Essentially, if the Chinese people (collectively) decide to focus on growing a 3+ child family, this population crunch will decline, but it seems that in major urban areas the people in general voiced that the policies might not be pro-family enough to reverse this shrinkage (with even some pointing to practices that indirectly discourage bringing up a family like workplace discrimination on pregnant women).

- Since China controlled the pandemic via strict lockdown, where one cannot leave their apartments / housing compound for ANY reason, couples would be bored and get busy in bed to pass the time, resulting in a surge in birth rate.

- Also because of the strict lockdown, couples would be wary of having babies in such uncertainty. For example, if a woman gets pregnant and their compound goes into lockdown, she would have trouble getting prenatal care. Even if they can go to the hospital, they are afraid they will get COVID there.

So far it seems the second theory is closer to truth.

What do you do?

There are things working in your favour, such as the inertia of supply chains. But that inertia is finite. You can try to negate the problem. Bet big on automation. Will that become cost effective soon enough, and will foreign owned companies choose to run automated factories in a foreign country when they could run it in their backyard? You can offer incentives to families to have more children (China has already done this), but can you afford to make them big enough to work? Ultimately, you have to plan for the case in which all else fails and your power declines.

What's almost as good as a continually growing workforce? The wealth and resources to command other nations' workforces. Hence, the Belt and Road initiative. Bake China's current wealth into the foundations of a global trade empire, and bind those it connects to China.

Buy control of resources expected to be crucial in the coming decades, such as rare earth minerals.

Also, grab as much territory as quickly as you can while you're powerful enough that the world might not say, "No". Build islands. Pressure other nations to get out of "your" territorial waters. Reabsorb Taiwan. etc..

Xi Jinping is getting his while the getting is good.