New Delhi, May 13: China continues to witness a sharp decline in population growth, with the country’s population shrinking for the fourth consecutive year amid falling birth and marriage rates.

The demographic trend is increasingly being viewed as a major long-term challenge for the Chinese economy, as a shrinking workforce and a rapidly ageing population place pressure on pension and healthcare systems while slowing economic growth.

According to data released by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs of China, around 1.697 million couples registered marriages during the first three months of this year, down 6.24 percent compared to the same period last year.

The figure marked the lowest first-quarter marriage total since 2020, when 1.557 million couples tied the knot during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in China. Traditionally, the first quarter is considered a peak wedding season due to the Chinese New Year holidays.

Despite repeated government efforts to encourage marriage and childbirth, China’s birth count dropped to a record low of 7.92 million last year. Official figures show that annual births have declined by more than 10 million since peaking in 2016.

China’s total population fell by 3.39 million last year to 1.4049 billion, according to official data. In absolute terms, it was the steepest annual population decline recorded in the country’s modern history, excluding the devastating famine between 1959 and 1961.

Analysts say the continuing demographic decline could have far-reaching consequences for China’s economic productivity, labour market, and social welfare systems in the coming decades.

New Delhi, May 13: The United States’ cost of war in Iran has climbed to 29 billion dollars, an increase of $4 billion from an estimate provided late last month.

The Pentagon said on Tuesday the cost of the war with Iran had touched to nearly $29 billion,The new figure was revealed by the Defense Department during a budget hearing on Capitol Hill,

President Donald Trump faced mounting scrutiny over the conflict and its impact on military readiness.Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were testifying on a $1.5 trillion budget request for 2027 alongside Pentagon finance chief Jules Hurst III.

but the joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate, and so now we think it’s closer to 29,” he said — citing updated “repair and replacement of equipment costs” and broader operational expenses.

Pressed on when Congress would receive a fuller accounting of the war’s costs, Hegseth said the administration would request “whatever we think we need” separately from the main Pentagon budget, but did not say when that supplemental request would arrive.

Several experts, however, questioned the Pentagon’s ledger, saying the real cost to US taxpayers is likely to bemuch higher  than the publicly stated estimateSome lawmakers have argued the price tag also fails to take into account the knock-on effects to the US economy, including higher prices for consumers caused, in part, by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

In April, US Representative Ro Khanna claimed the war would cost the US economy about $631bn 

Beijing, May 13: President Donald Trump is set to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday for a state visit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a restless moment for a world worried about war, trade and artificial intelligence.

“We’re the two superpowers,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House on Tuesday. “We’re the strongest nation on Earth in terms of military. China’s considered second.”

While Trump likes to project a sense of strength, the state visit occurs at a delicate moment for his presidency as his popularity at home has been weighed down by the US and Israel’s war with Iran and rising inflation as a consequence of that conflict. The president is seeking a win by signing deals with China to buy more American food and aircraft, saying he’ll be talking with Xi about trade “more than anything else.”

The Trump administration hopes to begin the process of establishing a “Board of Trade” with China to address differences between the countries. The board could help prevent the trade war ignited last year after Trump’s tariff hikes, an action China countered through its control of rare earth minerals. That led to a one-year truce last October.

But Trump comes to Beijing at a time when Iran continues to dominate his domestic agenda. The war has led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, stranding oil and natural gas tankers and causing energy prices to spike to levels that could sabotage global economic growth.

The US president declared that Xi didn’t need to assist in resolving the conflict, even though Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Beijing last week.

“We have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.

Taiwan and trade are high on the agenda

The status of Taiwan also appears to be a major topic as China is displeased with US plans to sell weapons to the self-governing island that the Chinese government claims as part of its own territory.

Trump told reporters Monday that he would be discussing with Xi an USD 11 billion weapons package for Taiwan that the US administration authorised in December but has not yet begun fulfilling.

The US leader has demonstrated greater ambivalence toward Taiwan, an approach that’s raising questions about whether Trump could be open to dialling back support for the island democracy.

At the same time, Taiwan — as the world’s leading chipmaker — has become essential for the development of AI, with the US importing more goods so far this year from Taiwan than China. Trump has sought to use Biden-era programs and his own deals to bring more chipmaking to America.

Trump says relationship with Xi is on solid footing

But Trump was already portraying the trip as a success before he left White House grounds. He openly mused about Xi’s planned reciprocal visit to the US, lamenting that the ballroom under construction would not be completed in time.

“We’re going to have a great relationship for many, many decades to come,” Trump said of the US and China. “As you know, President Xi will be coming here toward the end of the year. So that would be exciting. I only wish we had the ballroom finished.”

Trump said he had spoken with the Chinese leader and the meeting would be “positive” as he embarked with a coterie of aides, CEOs and family members. He will arrive in China on Wednesday evening and, after a ceremonial greeting, go to his hotel. He will attend a state banquet Thursday and have a working lunch with Xi on Friday before returning to the US.

Despite Trump’s outward confidence, China appears to be entering the meeting from “a much stronger place,” said Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser on Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

China would like to reduce tech restrictions on accessing computer chips and find ways to reduce tariffs, among other goals.

“But even if they don’t get much on any of those things, as long as there’s not a blow-up in the meeting and President Trump doesn’t go away and look to re-escalate, China basically comes out stronger,” Kennedy said.

Trump wants a three-way nuclear arms deal

Trump also intends to raise the idea of the US, China and Russia signing a pact that would set limits on the nuclear weapons each nation keeps in its arsenal, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters ahead of the trip. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.

China has previously been cool to entering such a pact. Beijing’s arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and is far from parity with the US and Russia, which each are estimated to have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads.

The last nuclear arms pact, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century. As the treaty was set to expire, Trump rejected a call by Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for “a new, improved, and modernized” deal that includes China.

The Pentagon estimates China has more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and will have over 1,000 by 2030.