Chinese people now live longer than their U.S. counterparts, latest data showed. 

The average life expectancy of Chinese people has risen from 76.5 years in 2016 to 77.93 at present, Mao Qun’an, a senior official from the National Health Commission, announced on Tuesday. This puts it above that of the U.S., which stood at 76.6 years in 2021. 

Calculations in 2018 suggested that life expectancy in China was on course to overtake that of the U.S. around 2027, but the process has been sped up by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The U.S. experienced a historic decline in life expectancy due to COVID-19, which became the third leading cause of death in the country in 2020 and 2021, as a new study by the National Cancer Institute found. 

More than a million have died from COVID in the U.S. by May this year, driving a major drop in life expectancy for the second year in a row. 

Published in April, a study based on government provisional data found a net loss of 2.26 years in U.S. life expectancy […]