China’s debt spiral and population crash—It’s worse than you think

Hello everyone. Welcome to Lelay's Real Talk. All right. Someone James California said, "Lay is fixing her lipstick." Um, actually Lei went to get a cup of water. Uh, I think I may need it because my my voice sounds a little off today. All right. How do I sound? Okay. Acceptable. Yeah. All right. Okay. Well, I set out to give you an update on China's economy and its mounting debt crisis, but along the way, I stumbled across something that provided that proved my earlier assessments. Um, I discovered evidence that China may be missing a billion people. I'll show you that in the second half of this program. But first, let's take a closer look at the state of China's economy. Um, so let me give you my conclusion up front, but I don't want to keep you in suspense. If you think China's economy is bad, its debt crisis is more severe, its population collapse is catastrophic. And when you combine the two, meaning the debt crisis and the population collapse, the consequences in my opinion are unlike anything human civilization has ever seen. All right. So let me first start uh by by talking about China's economy. My voice sounds very strange. All right. Very suspenseful, very dramatic. All right. On July 15th, China's National Bureau of Sus Statistics proudly announced that the GDP grew 5.3% in the first half of the year, beating the official target of about 5%. The internet response pure sarcasm. One user said, I mean Chinese user, he said, "What an inspiring way to start my day. The stats bureau must be working overnight to make these numbers happen." But the post that really went viral was uh dripping with irony. It says this. It says, "This is such wonderful news. I was thrilled about our booming economy. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't sleep a wink. Ended up um uh ended up chewing on two stale buns, corn buns, and washing them down with a vintage bottle of 1982 tap water. Truly overwhelmed with happiness. Honestly, I found the vintage 1982 tap water funny. All right, so some still say China's economy is too big to fail. I think it's too hollow to stand. It's already full of cracks. And while it's hard to measure each crack, um we can tell how bad things are by how desperate people have become. I have told you about China's auto industry. um its EV makers are slashing prices in a race to the bottom and it's not competition anymore. It's selfdestruction and now that same desperation has spread to food. Yes, food with spend. Now with spending down in every other category, food is one of the last things people um still shell out for. And now even that's a war zone. China's major food delivery platforms Muan, Alibaba, JD have launched a brutal subsidy war calling for zero yuan meals or deep discounts and they offer coupons like spend 18 yen and save 22. All right, of course orders exploded, but guess who's paying the price? merchants and restaurant owners. One tip shop owner said he worked late into the night and earned almost nothing. A rice noodle vendor said after fees and commissions, she made less than one yen per order. Some shops had to throw out free drinks because no one even show up to pick them up. Um, these platforms don't care about food delivery profits. What they want is traffic. um users can users they can redirect to more profitable businesses like e-commerce and travel, but the consumers aren't loyal. They're not there for food. They're there for the freed drinks and freed food. And when the discounts disappear, so will they. Um now, this kind of involution isn't limited to online. Even five-star hotels uh in Junjo now set up a street food stall. Top chefs bargain prices selling on the sidewalk. And the hotel manager shrug off the loss of prei prestige by saying how much is face really worth? So to me, China's economy um or China's economic mess boils down to two massive crisis, debt and population or demographics. The financial system is um buried in debt and can fund a real recovery. And with a massive population decline, the gap between expectations and reality is growing fast. When you lose this many people, even a manageable debt becomes crushing. Right? So today I want to break down China's twin ticking time bombs, debt and population. Actually I think both have detonated. So let me start with the numbers. Um China's hold on where are my where are my numbers? My numbers. Oh, my numbers are disappearing on me. Oh, here we go. There they are. Oh, I don't know why this is taking so long. Huh. Anyways, I only have I only have a few slides, but they are important. Um, but anyways, it takes a while to upload. This is interesting. Anyways, let me Okay, let me talk while it's loading. So, China's onbalance sheet loan total at 270 trillion yuan and that includes government, corporate, and personal loans. And this number comes straight from the central bank's credit balance sheet as of May 2025. And it covers um it covers yeah government, corporate and personal loans. And then add to that is uh 185 trillion yen in direct bond market debt. That includes government bonds, local government bonds and corporate bonds. And this number came from the the central bank's April report. So um if you add them up it shows that China has a total social debt or society debt I don't know how how you call that maybe social debt at 455 trillion y and um this number excludes the underground lending and shadow banking actually here we go yeah there there we go okay so 400 at 455 trillion yum. Um, and this number is real. Um, so now let's do the math. Even assuming a low interest rate of of just 3%, China would need to pay about 13 and a half trillion yen in interest payment every year. Just interest, no principle. And China's official GDP for 2024 was 135 trillion yen, meaning 10% of the economy goes just to interest payments. But here's the problem. That GDP number is inflated. I've covered this before in my programs. China's actual GDP could be 50% or even 67% lower than reported. So if we use a more realistic baseline, right? So let's say if we normalize China's GDP, um make this bigger. If we normalize China's GDP by cutting it in half, then 20% of China's real GDP goes to purely paying interest. Think about it. 1/5if of the actual wealth China produces every year is eaten up by interest payments alone. And it's not like the collateral backing uh backing this debt is strong. Asset prices in China are falling and many forms of collateral like local government financing assets or real estate um are liquid are are not liquid um or worthless. So China's total wealth is shrinking but its debt is still growing and growing very fast. an estimated annual 7%. Um, so China's debt is growing at 7%. So if you apply the 7% to the 455 trillion, that's another 30 trillion y in new debt that will be added by the end of this year. It far outpacing the official GDP growth of 5%. And most of the new debt is government borrowing, right? Because Chinese government's fis fiscal deficit is expected to hit 10% of GDP in 2025 and will it will exceed 12 trillion yan. So um so you wonder why why China's debt or the um why the the debt is growing so fast. why the debt is growing faster than the GDP growth. I mean, first of all, I don't believe there's any GDP growth. But the debt is growing for real. And some experts believe this soaring debt growth rate reflects persistently high corruption costs. That's the cost of Chinese corruption. And who's borrowing? Who's still borrowing? the government and stateowned enterprises which are the most inefficient parts of the economy. Um meanwhile household consumption and private sector activity have flatlined. Um now there's another layer of risk that is the financial sector itself. I want to show you another number. Um yeah so total liabilities of China's financial institutions have now hit 500 trillion UN and that includes com commercial banks um trusts insurance companies security firms asset managers um of course it also includes um a huge amount of interbank debt um but think about it the 500 trillion UN in financial sector liabilities. It's higher than the 455 trillion in total societal debt. It's a sign of just how bloated and overleveraged China's financial system has become. Um, and it's 390% of China's official GDP. Now, for context, I want to I want you to compare that to um the US. Can you see? Is that too small? Maybe let me make this bigger. All right. So, um yeah, this is better. So, for context, US total debt is about hundred trillion US dollars. US financial sector liabilities is between 35 to 45 trillion. So you see it's about uh 35 to 45% of US total societal debt and it's only about 170% of US GDP. Whereas in China um the total financial sector liability it exceeds total societal debt and it's 390% of GDP. Um so now we know China's GDP is inflated. So if we have China's inflated GDP, its financial sector debt explodes to about 780% of real GDP. And that's unthinkable. So in short, China's financial system is highly leveraged and dangerously fragile. It's under massive strain and simply cannot fund any real economic growth anymore. And if you think this is already a disaster, it gets worse. And here's why. China's population is collapsing. Because you need people to pay back debt. I mean, the debt will not pay back the debts will not pay back by itself. You need people, right, to to um to generate to get the real economy um going before you can pay back the debt. So a shrinking population means a shrinking economy. Fewer workers, fewer consumers, um there's no way fewer I mean there's no way that they could carry this mountain of debt. The debt burden will keep growing, but the base that's supposed to support it, that's China's people, is rapidly disappearing. Um that's what I said this crisis you know the debt crisis combined with the population crisis is unheard of in human in human history. So eventually this debt won't just pressure the economy. Um it will crush the shrinking population left behind. So that bring us to the next topic. What is China's real population? Now, for those of you who have followed my channel for a while, you know that I've said it many times. China's real population is not anywhere close to 1.4 billion. It's overstated by nearly a billion people. Um, it's somewhere between 300 and 500 million. And I based that estimate on two key assumptions. One, China never actually reached 1.4 billion people before the pandemic. the real number was closer to 800 million. And then two, CO caused catastrophic losses likely in the hundreds of millions. And just today, I came across a government slide and some media reports that indirectly confirmed my estimates. I mean, I was shocked. So, the first evidence came from China's Ministry of Education. Let me let me show you the chart. Where? Where is that? Oh, here we go. Let me make this bigger. All right, here we go. Okay, I discovered this chart. Um, this chart shows the number of primary schools in China from 2000 to 2023. What do we see? A steady collapse. Officially, China's population grew from 1.26 billion in 2000 to 1.4 4 billion in 2024 I mean in 2023 a gain of 140 million people in 23 years and that's 11% increase. So why during the same period did China lose 74% or 410,000 primary schools? Right? If you look at the chart, if you look at the numbers, I don't know if you can read the numbers, they're a little small. Um, so in 2000, China had 553,600 primary schools. By 2023, only 143,000 remained. And that's a staggering 74% decrease in 23 years. Yes, most closures according to to um to the ministry happened in rural areas. But still, what kind of country loses 3/4 of its elementary schools while its population grows 11%. It makes no sense unless the population didn't grow at all. In fact, it declined. Um, that chart likely mirrors a real gradual population decline starting around 2000, which is why I still stand by my claim that China's real population in 2013 in 2019 was closer to 800 million before COVID hit. Um, let me give you an example to illustrate the drastic population decline on the ground. So, in just the first half of 2023, um, do I have a chart for that? No, I don't. Okay. So, in the first half of 2023, 20 primary schools in Trenjo, Fujian province announced closure and another 50 in the city may soon follow. Now, Tuenjo's population, I checked, is 8.83 83 million uh in the metropolitan area. Now that's about the same as New York City. Now imagine 72 elementary schools closing in New York City in a single year. It would be front page news. The same goes to London, right? The same goes for London which has similar population as Tranjo. Uh I think London has what 8.8 million population. So the close clo closing or the closure of 72 elementary schools in one year that's unthinkable unless the city has suffered a massive demog demographic collapse and it's not just Fuian the worst the above numbers are all from all came from official Chinese media um yeah all all the numbers Sorry, where did it go? All the numbers I'm I'm re I'm quoting you came from either official statistics or um state media which most likely quoted um official statistics. Um and so it's not just Fujian. The worst school closures are in northeastern China. Hong Jang province lost nearly 60% of its primary schools between 2013 and 2022. Jiling lost nearly 50% totaling 2600 closures. Leonging shut down more than 2,200 primary schools, a decline of almost 50%. So in 10 years, China's northeast closed half of its elementary schools. And this was even before COVID hit. Those this was from 2013 to 2022. So if it's not a population decline, what is it? Right. Um, and even in major city like Shanghai, it's happening. Since the start of 2025, Chinese media has said that six districts have closed four primary schools and 12 kindergartens. Um, so these numbers are from official Chinese sources and they're hard to dispute. Now, while primary school collapse reviews the long-term population decline that started way before COVID, the kindergarten data give us clues about CO casualties. Now, let's talk about the kindergarten statistics. So according to the fin Chinese financial magazine Taiing experts estimate that 26,000 kindergartens may shut down in 2025. China's Ministry of Education reported that 21,100 kindergartens already closed in 2024. And between 2022 and 2024, the number of kindergarten the number of Chinese kindergartens dropped by 41,500, which was a 14% decrease. Here we go. I gave you the text. These are the these are the quotes. Now, that's the official Chinese statistics. So the 14% is only from 2022 to 2020 2024. So what I did is I factor in the um estimated um closure of 2025. So I calculated how much um what is the percentage of decrease in between the four year in four years from 2022 to 2025 in China. Right? by using all of these numbers and it's a 23% drop. So, China's total kindergartens uh will drop by 23% by the end of this year um since 2022. Now, the kindergartens that remain open are shrinking too. The average size fell from 180 children in 2017 to 141 in 2024, a 22% drop. Now, let's be conservative. Assume there was no growth from 2017 to 2022, right? Because the number I just gave you, it was a seven-year number. It was from 2017 to 2024. What I really need is the drop from 2022 to 2025. So they're not appletoapple comparison but but let's make some very conservative assumptions. So let's assume that there was no growth from 2017 to 2022 and the trend holds steady from 2024 to 2025 that still give us a 22% drop in average size over those four years. So then I asked AI I mean this is a mathematical question. If the number of kindergartens shrink by 23% and their average size drop by 22% over four years, what is the total drop in preschool population during that period? The answer is it's a 40% decline in preschoolers between 2022 and 2025. And keep in mind those are conservative assumptions. Now, here's a real world example. Um, Chinese media interviewed a Miss Chung Ling who used to run three kindergartens. She closed one in 23 and another one in 24 both due to a lack of students and the last one is barely is struggling. So, she said uh in 2020 and 2021 enrollment was effortless. parents came to her. She didn't need to do anything. 60 kids graduated, 60 new kids enrolled, and sometimes even more. Um, and some of her classes were over capacity. But after 2023, she said things changed. Only 20 students enrolled to replace the 60 that graduated. Now, think about it. 2023, that's the moment the CO generation was supposed to start daycare. Um because in China, 90% of Chinese kids aged 3 to six attend daycare, right? I mean, some parents, that's just some parents start early at age two. So, so that drop off isn't anecdotal, it's systemic. So, Miss Chan currently has 130 kids, but she says 60 will graduate and another 10 may leave. She expects only 60 uh returning students in the fall. And she said if we can enroll just 20 new kids by September, we'll consider that a success. Now, that's a drop from 130 kids to 80. A 38% decline in one year for the for the for the daycare centers that remain open that are not closed. So this is real and this is measurable and it suggests that our earlier 40% estimate is still very conservative because we only used a 22% um drop in the number of enrollments. Um and so I think the real drop um in terms of the number of preschoolers in China right now could be as high as 50%. meaning that China has lost 50% uh children who who are in that age group, you know, 3 to six or or yeah, 3 to six or even two to six. So, here's the big question. Why? It can be explained as lifestyle choices because 90% of Chinese kids go to daycare. Um people didn't suddenly stop having kids. I mean this kind of drop because it happened suddenly in 2023, right? She said 2020 and 2021 was no problem at all. It suddenly started in 2023. It cannot be lifestyle choices. I mean there's no way just people all of a sudden just all decided not to have children. I mean it's this kind of job is is is it has to be it has to be a major uh demographic collapse. It's not a lifestyle choices. In fact during lockdowns couples had more time together at home. If anything birth rates should have gone up. So a 40 to 50% collapse in the preschool population means something more severe. It means it could possibly mean that 40 to 50% of people of childbearing age are simply gone. It confirms what I've long argued that China lost hundreds of millions of people during COVID. Um if China's real population was 800 million before COVID then uh and it lost half of the half of the population or 40 to 50% of the population during the pandemic. The country's true population today is around 400 million and that means the official population of 1.4 billion is off by 1 billion people. case closed. What do you think? Um, I didn't expect to to discover this today. I was gonna give you a talk on China's economy. I think I did in the first half, but I accidentally discovered, you know, proof that China is missing by 1 billion people. All right. Um, now let me quickly tell you about my program released in Lace Looking Glass. I spoke about the uh the widespread belief that something dramatic is going to happen in July 2025. And this was the result of um a prediction given by a manga artist by the name of Rio Tazuki. Uh she recently wrote a book called The Last Words of the Angel. And I and I thought she it it was a lot of information that are extremely um interesting and insightful. I think it's an important video given that we've witnessed so many earthquakes in the past month. I mean there there are earthquakes in eastern part of Russia, in Indonesia, in the Philippines, in Japan of of course and then in Alaska. Didn't we just see um an earthquake in Alaska two days ago and then Mount Reneer, is it Mount Reneer in um in Seattle or near Seattle has been erupting, right? It was it was um a volcano. Um and then there's also earthquake in Argent is it Argentina? No, Panama. Panama. And people have seen wild animals running in droves away from uh Yellowstone National Park. So all of that is spooky if you really think about it. Um I mean all the places where where we've seen uh volcanic eruptions or earthquakes are on the the Pacific Rena. uh and so it matches or they match with the um the prediction so closely. So anyway, so that's why I made the video uh and I thought it was um it was it was actually a very moving story. Um I I didn't read her book, but it was from from the translation I read. I think it's it's very touching. So I highly recommend it if you if you haven't seen it. Chris, if you can copy the link, I'd appreciate it. All right, that's all that's all I have. Let me see. I mean, let me first thank the people who gave me super stickers. And here I see uh Chris, excuse me. Oh, my voice did my voice come back. Yeah. All right. I saw a super stick sticker from Chris. From a Chris, where did that go? Chris. Chris, we Vietnamese love you. Oh, okay. Thank you, Chris. Thank you. I love Vietnam. I think Vietnamese food is is one of my I mean, other than Chinese food, um I guess my other favorite Asian food is Vietnamese. Yeah, I'm not too crazy about Korean food or Thai food, uh, which are very po or or even Japanese food. I mean, I like Japanese food, but but they're all very popular in the US. Um, I would say of all the other Asian food, my favorite is Vietnamese food. Um, it's because it's very light. It's very light. Yeah. Anyways, thank you. All right, Chris. Uh, that's Chris. Thank you. Oh, there's another another one from Chris. Good. Nice. All right. Thank you. Thank you for for helping me. Thank you for the super stickers. All right. All right. Is that all? Okay. Let me take a few questions. All right. A lot of discussions. Sheila Sheila Jones. Um, please can a podcaster give you credit? Use show uh uh I'm not quite sure. So, a podcaster gave me credit for for what? For what I did? All right. Okay. Okay. Here. One. Drusilla. Do you think that so many people died during CO because China hit the truth or was it on purpose to depopulate? I don't think it was on purpose. I really think it got out of control. Um but this the regime the top leaders certainly understand the the harm that the virus could cause. Um so that's why they they were adamant about locking down and precisely because they knew how many people died. They were so stubborn when it comes to lockdowns because we couldn't understand the lockdowns. Um, if you look at the statistics, there were nothing there was nothing in China that that should make them so paranoid, right? So, it makes sense because they knew exactly how deadly that that was and how many people died that they were so um paranoid. They were so um adamant about the lockdowns. Otherwise, things didn't make sense. It didn't make sense at all. Okay. Uh, Peter. Okay. So, population or lack of would explain the CCP's struggles to stimulate consumer spending almost amongst citizens. Yeah. So if people if economists and experts admit China's massive loss of population then their projection of China's economy will completely change. It explained a lot of things. It explains the lack of uh the the terrible car sales in China. I mean almost all the commercial uh consumer activities were were abysmal. I mean there was just nothing right. It's because there aren't that many people. Um, period. Here's a question from Evelyn. I assume China has debt, but they are collecting dollars from countries that owe China for infrastructure construction. Are they? I don't think so. Um, do you calculate for the influx of foreign debt payment? I do not think that China is collecting payments from from the develop from developing countries for the belen road projects. I think I think the bel road um make those countries terribly in debt. It also um make Chinese banks suffer because they're not able to collect the payments. So it's lose-lose situation. Even if they were able to, I think the banks probably would reshuffle, redirect the funds somewhere else to keep them outside China. You know, here's a question from Jackie Gonzalez. You are a beautiful soul. Many blessings to you and please keep doing what you are doing. Well, thank you. Thank you for the recognition. Ravi's interest 1 billion missing will be a devastating especially on defense and industrial force won't the government be worried and initiate energy plan emergency plans what do you think yes they are they are very concerned that's why they have um uh menration police they have grassroot uh officials you know in the neighborhood monitoring women's um menstrual cycles and people's pregnancy. I mean it sounds crazy but that's that's what's happening on the ground. They are very concerned. Uh someone said Lei deserves much credit. Okay I someone says hold on let me see uh Angela Johnson. Well, thank you, Angela. Here's a question from Kimberly Warren Lei. Could the vaccine have impacted fertility, fertility? Um, it's possible, but there isn't any studies currently being done in China on that. Um, I think the fertility I think the fertility even if it's Hm. I don't know. I think that's a interesting thought, but not that dramatic. You know, when you when you suddenly have I mean, even if it's vaccine related fertility issue, I think it will the problem will show up over time. How could you have such drastic decline and massive kindergarten um closures within two years to me it's it's just not normal. I mean if you see a 5% decline you know annually and then it's it's normal. This is too dramatic. So that's why I think it's something else. It has to be COVID casualties. Drasilla, do you think if China reaches a trade agreement with the US, it will help China and her people? H I wonder. I mean, under the current regime, I don't know if a trade agreement will be reached or even if it's even if it's reached, would will they honor it? That's what I that's what I question. without fundamental changes in the regime, I I don't understand if a trade agreement means anything at this point because the CCP has not shown any track record of honoring an agreement. So, okay. So, Jeff Ramos lay off topic. Do you think gold will reach $5,000 soon? It's appreciating at rapid pace. I think it's it's appreciating as a result of people's panic but gold's value you know I think that's still assuming I think in college when when we when I took econ economics class I mean the professor asked us a question the value of diamond versus the value of water you know when there's a natural disaster when there's a drought or when there's is electricity outage. When you don't have clean water, what what can you do with gold or diamond? They're useless. What you need is a gallon of water. So, the value of gold is over is overstated because people panicked. Um, but what's the value of gold? You know, when people I I don't know. I just think I just think it's it's over it's over um it's overstated. So I don't I'm not giving investment advices but I think it's all it's all uh I mean not just gold everything else pre precious I mean precious stones um art you know any valuables people are buying but what what what's their real value? Not much s how do I say set zuring zuring zuring song. Do you think China China's economy can recover to where it used to be in the heyday of the 2010s if she steps down and western friendly powers take over? I do not think so. No. because number one the loss of population number two um the the moral fabric of of Chinese society is destroyed when when the society when trust is destroyed in a society nothing will work um even if even if you allow the Chinese people to uh to have an election today. I still don't think that many of China's problems will be fixed today because it's just not just a democratic election process. That's just one of the many requirements and it's at this point it's certainly not the most important requirements for China to be uh stared onto the right path. I think trust um and um a good a good set of values uh people need to rediscover themselves as Chinese because the way the Chinese think and behave today is is is is not Chinese. So um so no there's no way China will go back to the heydays of the 20110s even not just China the rest of the world cannot return to those days either the world is a different place all right Michael Cowrack are you able to obtain hospital birth trend records to corate to corroborate the dramatic decline in birth rates or is this information too sensitive to be re No, I I I cannot I mean there were at one point the Russians did I tell you the Russians were actually compiling uh population data at the grassroot county level. China has hundreds of counties and each county government released their local population local demog demographic data. So the Russians were manually going through all the all the uh grassroot government and add up the population and they had somewhere like between 500 million. They they had Yeah. They had no 300 million and then um so but then that data somebody tried to repeat that process during COVID but that data is removed from from their website. local Chinese governments no longer publish that data. So I do not think um hospital birth data uh is easily accessible. I do not think so. So all right. Okay. All right. That's that's it. Am am I have I Okay. Here's a question from seek the truth. Do you have any update on the recall efforts of Taiwan's legislature? Isn't that happening? I know it's very intense. Um I haven't followed. I think the results hasn't come out. Hasn't come out yet, but it's happening right now. I think they may wrap up what this weekend. Yeah, I I'll let you know this Saturday for sure. Um, for a Morris family, what does the average Chinese think about the population crash and debt crisis? Are they angry or scared? They do not even know that their country is missing that many people. The s that's the sad part. And they do not know how much the country is in debt or even if even if they do know the numbers, there's no reference point. I mean, if if you if you don't have a benchmark to compare compare it with, then the numbers are meaningless. So, they're not aware. I mean, some some professionals do, but are they allowed to talk about them? I don't think so. All right. Well, there a lot of conversations. Let me uh I think I reached the bottom. I may pick one or two questions if I see them. Uh oh, here's Frank CE. Why China needs uh from Chinese American living in the US for more than 30 years. Um Oh yeah, I don't know. Yeah, Frank brought up a very good issue which is alarming. The US government needs to look into this because the Chinese embassy, the Chinese government is asking Chinese nationals living in the US to download an app and then register themselves and provide key information through that app um so that the Chinese embassy or consulate can get in touch with them. Now, it caused panic because first of all, we don't know if the app is safe. That app could be a spyware. I mean, the maybe the the CCP isn't necessarily interested in your name and address because they have all that information anyway if you're Chinese national, but what they want is that app on your cell phone so that they can keep track of everything you do. It's it's a spyware basically. Um, so that's why I really do not think Chinese nationals should download should download that app because it it's it it's a spyware, right? And then it knows everything that you do on your cell phone. It could even eve. It could even listen, you know, listen listen in all your private conversations. I I think that's what what the person is referring to. And son Zuring song, thank you Le. I'm Tibetan, so appreciate your truth tell on the CCP. Well, thank you. Thank you for um for being there for me. All right. Um NZ Pridey, why did the Russians comply the data you just referenced? Why did the Russians Oh, the Russians do not believe the Chinese statistics at all. The Russians and the Japanese actually have done a lot of research on Chinese demographics. The Russians um in 2018 have a very active social media discussion about Chinese population. Um they were there were chi Russian experts and scholars who did studies on this. So the Russians were saying that Chinese population um at the time in 2018 was no more than 800 million because they did the study. They added up they added up all the uh urban population from from the local grassroot governments and it was what 290 million and and and they they know that the ratio between urban population to rural population is at the time was one one. So if you double that, that would be China's total population. And and even if you factor in some uh error, you know, if you factor in a 10% margin of error, so they said that China's population was no more than 800 million. That's the Russians, you know, in the 2018. Um so yeah, so they're very they're very um well-versed in China affairs and the Japanese too. Baby Vaso, how are Chinese not aware of their population crisis when the men outnumber the women? Oh, this they do. Yeah. Yeah, this they do. This isn't speculation. Is China not interested in folks from neighboring poor Asian countries? Well, the the Chinese are certainly aware of their um gender disparity, but they're not necessarily aware of the total loss of population. Um I mean they see the empty streets, they they see the empty villages, but they assume that the Chinese have moved to other parts of China. Um so I don't think the Chinese are aware that their population is missing by hundreds of millions. Um not yet. Maybe some do. But thank you. Thank you for the great question. Now even the gender disparity is twisting China in a very strange and odd way. You will think that there are more men than women and that you know men have a problem of finding a partner. But the problem is actually the other way around. There are in in urban China um at those dating services or whatever matchmaking events the ratio between men women to men is 20 to1 it's it's mindboggling there are 20 women for one man so you think what what has happened what has happened to Chinese population um yeah and very very very strange change. Anyways, all right. That's the bottom. Uh I think this Okay. John John S. And it goes there. There are a lot of them. There are a lot of them. Um that's all. Okay. I think that's I reached the bottom of all the questions. I thank you for joining me. I thank everyone who has given me super stickers and I'll see you over the weekend. All right, bye. Thank you. Bye.