THE DRAGON HAS NO TEETH:

China's dominance is inexorably linked to the size of its population. It has long been the world's most populous country. A technologically advanced society, with a great army of young workers and soldiers, is inevitably a power to be reckoned with. Only three years ago the UN predicted that in a decade China would reach a population peak of 1.46 billion. But what if these forecasts are dramatically wrong? What if China's sabre-rattling masks a fear of a demographic collapse - a baby bust?

According to a new UN report, China's population growth has collapsed by 94 per cent, from eight million a decade ago to just 480,000 last year. What's particularly worrying for Chinese leaders is that this means a rapid reduction in the working population. The previous set of projected figures suggested that by the year 2100, China's 15- to 64-year-old population would be 579 million. This has now been revised down to 378 million, a 35 per cent fall. If this prediction plays out, the implications for China - and the rest of the world - could be brutal.

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