[Alneyan]

If you were speaking of the Last fifty years, your statement was indeed correct. China had fewer than 600 million inhabitants in the 1953 census (how reliable this census was is another matter), but more than 1,250 million inhabitants in 2000 (the figure is now estimated to be slightly under 1,3000 million), which would be a twofold increase in roughly fifty years. During this period, China had a growth rate around 2% per year, and the number of children per woman was much higher, especially before 1975.

My point was that China's population growth is decreasing nowadays, making a twofold increase in fifty years no longer possible (with the current trends that is). How quickly will their growth slow down is another question; the estimated value for 2004 is 0.57%, which seems quite low compared to the 1% of the previous years (or 0.9% in 2001). But predicting the future is not something I will try. I have read about estimates going from 1,400 million inhabitants to 1,600 before their population growth stops (once again with the present tendencies).