Recently, the Chinese government admitted that it had “overcounted” the Chinese population by about a hundred million.
Actually, nothing of the sort happened. Chinese announcements concerning anything are generally soaked in various mixtures of bogosity, and this one is no exception. A hundred million is not a rounding error. There was, in fact, no error at all. The Chinese simply lied about their population at some unknown point in the past and continued lying until it became inconvenient or impossible to sustain.
Communist states lie about everything. This is one of the few certainties — other than the certainty of their eventual failure — that can be entertained about a People’s Republic. To borrow from Mary McCarthy, everything they say is a lie, including “and” and “the.” In cases like this, it usually involves national security. Communist China was blowing itself up, like a puffer fish, to look more scary and formidable.
- Boxer Rebellion (1900) – 100,000
- Xinhai revolution (1911-1912) – 175,000
- Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945) — 20 million
- Nationalist Chinese deaths — 10,214,000
- Communist-Kuomintang civil war (1945-1949) — 7 million
- Anti-Landlord campaign (1949-1952) – up to 4 million
- Korean War battle deaths (1950-1953) – 180,000 to 650,000
- Counterrevolutionary campaign – 2 million
- Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) — 40-65 million
- Great Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) – Up to 20 million
- One-child campaign – 336 million abortions