Gao’s sin? Saying that China may have grown just 2% over the last two or three years, less than half the rate Xi’s government claims. The reason Gao is allegedly being silenced is for shining a brighter-than-usual spotlight on one of the biggest perception problems facing Xi’s Communist Party: that China routinely cooks the GDP books.

China’s economy expanded by 5% year on year in 2024, with an upswing in the final quarter of the year, as a flurry of stimulus measures kicked in and helped meet Beijing’s growth target.

China reported its economy grew 5% in 2024, meeting its target of around 5%. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected China's full-year GDP growth to come in at 4.9%, just shy of the official target of around 5% — which analysts had said was ambitious.

The figures follow trends worldwide, but especially in East Asia, where Japan, South Korea and other nations have seen their birth rates plummet.

China's population has decreased for the third consecutive year. In 2024, the number of deaths exceeded births by 1.39 million. Rapid urbanization, rising costs of living, and gender inequalities are deepening the demographic crisis,