China is concerned about much more than India outgrowing its population

What matters to China is consumer and investor confidence, “so it is not hard to see why Chinese officials are pushing back on the argument that a population decline spells economic decline,” said Dimitar Gueorguiev, an associate professor who teaches Chinese politics at Syracuse University.

To China, being the most populous nation “doesn’t count for anything” in and of itself, he told NBC News in an email. What’s important is “to be seen as a developing, modern, and functional country.”