Another one: Zhang posing after winning bronze in the women’s 50m freestyle at the 2024 Paris Olympics. — AP
Compiled by BENJAMIN LEE, C.ARUNO and R.ARAVINTAN
PETS could be double the number of toddlers in Chinese cities by 2030 if the birth rate remains low, Oriental Daily reported.
According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, in 2017, the number of children (aged of four and below) in cities were 90 million and pets at 40 million.
Based on this and the declining birth rate trend over the years, an international bank’s analysis report forecast that by 2030, the number of pets would hit 70 million and toddlers would drop to below 40 million.
The report also predicted that pet cats would outnumber dogs as they need less space.
As a result of a preference for furkids, the pet food market in China is expected to expand to US$12bil (RM53mil) a year by 2030.
Last year, China saw a drop in population by 2.08 million to just 1.41 billion.
Over half of those aged between 25 and 29 are singles.
> Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei, who bagged a silver and five bronze medals at the Paris Games, joked that getting a ticket to Jay Chou’s concert was harder than winning an Olympic medal, China Press reported.
The 26-year-old, who has won the most Olympic medals in the country’s history, claimed that she had wanted to take a break in September to watch the Taiwanese singer’s concert in Nanjing city.
The big fan of Chou told reporters that she however failed to get a ticket.
“Winning a medal at the Olympic Games was an easier task,” she said with a smile.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Zhang won two gold and two silver medals.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
