[ETCM]

While I do somewhat agree with you, you’re still left with a populace drastically smaller than it had been.

China could kill 2/3 of their population, and still have a lower population density than the USA. Their population outstrips their natural resources, and is nearly impossible to manage. Previously, their population WAS their primary natural resource, now it is too old to be productive. Of course, this is placing an artificial limit of their current borders. There is a lot of land and natural resources surrounding them with low population density, ripe for expansion. Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan...

Still, I'm not sure even the CCP would go so far as killing off their elderly and unproductive, and they probably couldn't survive the fallout.

[DoughtyOne]

I suspect that if China pulled something like that off, it
would become an island, with nobody venturing out to do
business with it any longer.

Any nation ruthless enough to do something like that to its
own people, would not be a nation anyone could trust.

[alexander_busek]

China could kill 2/3 of their population, and still have a lower higher population density than the USA.

True.

Regards,