Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

This weekend, Uzbekistan holds parliamentary elections. Criticism of the government is

muted, of the president unthinkable. There's not even an opposition party. To see why this

is still real progress, you have to consider how bad things used to be. And at about this

time of year, cubicle dwellers can expect to get the bosses end of your memo. The language

can be interesting.

But first, China has experienced enormous development since its market reforms of the late 1970s.

More than 850 million people have been lifted out of poverty. GDP growth has averaged nearly

10% a year. But the world's second biggest economy is slowing down. Its challenges are

many. Chronyism, bad debts, the trade war. The biggest pressure of all though might be demographic.

China is getting old before it gets rich. Two years ago for the Chinese New Year's

Gala, they had a skit in which an old man visits his old wife and a nursing home. Simon Rebinevich

is our Asia economic senator and is based in Shanghai. He's been suffering from Alzheimer's

and has not recognized him for one year. And in a very sappy, somewhat heart-rending moment,

she finally recognizes him. The audience loves it. But for the government, really, it's a message

that they are trying to deliver, which is that the country is getting old quickly and people need

to be aware of that. Why is that? Why does the Chinese government need to draw attention to

maging? It's a dramatic shift for China. For a long time, it's been thought of as a young country,

a country of young workers. The demographic trends have been clear for some time. Nevertheless,

for a lot of people who are living here is almost catching them unawares. Next year is something of

gloomy milestone and that the median age in China will actually be older than in America. So China's

...