New Delhi: After targeting Japan, SpaceX and Tesla chief Elon Musk has now aimed at China while raising concerns over possible ‘population collapse’, which, according to him is the biggest threat to civilization. Earlier, Musk has been criticised for being vocal about the declining birthrate in Japan where he called on Tokyo to address the problem before the country "ceases to exist." This time, he took China's example to support his argument.


"Most people still think China has a one-child policy. China had its lowest birthrate ever last year, despite having a three-child policy! At current birth rates, China will lose ~40% of people every generation! Population collapse. (sic)," Musk tweeted in response to a BBC article.






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The BBC article stated that the population in the Asian nation grew from 1.41212 billion to just 1.41260 billion in 2021 – a record low increase of just 480,000. From 2.6 billion in the late 1980s, China's birth rate has dropped to 1.5 billion in 2021, the report noted. The drop in figures is linked to the strict Covid measures over the last two years. The country had discontinued its one child-policy in 2016.


The latest comment comes a day after Musk had said: "We definitely don't have too many people. Earth could sustain many times its current human population and the ecosystem would be fine." In an interview last month, Musk had stressed that "population collapse is the biggest threat to the civilsation". On another instance, he had tweeted: "Contrary to what many think, the richer someone is, the fewer kids they have. I am a rare exception."


"Some people think that having fewer kids is better for the environment. Environment's gonna be fine even if we doubled the population. I know a lot of environmental stuff...Japan had lowest birth rate. Having kids is essential for maintaining civilization. We can't let civilization dwindle into nothing," Musk said.






There has been a rising trend of couples going childless and individuals avoiding marriage in many nations.