India, Feb. 6 -- In times of chaos, quiet developments that should provoke reflection are easily missed. So it is with the news that China's birth rate has fallen to its lowest level since 1949. Over the past decade, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has sought to infuse the Chinese people with a grand sense of collective purpose. But the continual decline in China's birth rate indicates that even its powerful leadership is struggling to address the great anxiety of the modern age - individualism.

Commentary on China is usually either dismissive or alarmist. These extremes can be seen in reaction to Xi's vision for China (formally known as Xi Jinping Thought), which is often described in the West as either vainglorious or totalitarian. ...