The Chinese government has announced a road map for expanding services for elderly people, amid fears that the rising proportion of retirees will weigh on the world's second-largest economy.
Newsweek has reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry by email with a request for comment.
Why It Matters
China's population is aging rapidly, with citizens aged 65 and older already accounting for 14 percent of its 1.4 billion people. The country is expected to join the ranks of "super-aged" societies like Japan and South Korea in the coming years.
As more individuals leave the workforce than ever before, straining pension systems, the government has increased investment in elder care and related industries to manage the pressure.
What To Know
China's Civil Affairs Ministry on Thursday announced a series of guidelines to support the country's reform of elderly care services.
Vice Minister Tang Chengpei called for a "comprehensive" approach to elderly care services, one that effectively connects social security and health support systems and stimulates the "silver economy," per a report from the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
The reforms, which Tang emphasized must be implemented before the end of the next decade for maximum effect, include a three-tier system for elderly care from the village to township to county levels. This should involve increased coordination between institutional care centers and home and community-based care workers.
The new guidelines also stress technological innovation, such as artificial intelligence, humanoid robots, and brain-computer interfaces, to improve elder care services.
China is already a global leader in industrial automation, having overtaken Japan and Germany in 2024 to achieve the world's third-highest robot density, according to the International Federation of Robotics.
Decades of the One-Child Policy have exacerbated China's demographic challenges. Despite ending the policy in 2016 and later allowing families to have two and then three children, few young Chinese are having bigger families. Rising urban living costs, stagnating wages, and a focus on personal well-being and leisure have all been cited as factors. As a result, the country's fertility rate fell to just 1.0 child per woman in 2023—well below the 2.1 needed to sustain the population—leaving fewer young people to care for both children and aging parents.
Local governments have introduced various policies, ranging from cash subsidies to moves to increase workplace flexibility for new parents in certain fields. In some cases, even once-thriving private kindergartens are being converted into nursing homes to address the surge in senior citizens.
What People Are Saying
Tang Chengpei, vice minister of civil affairs: "The aging of the population is accelerating. We must make full use of an important window period around 2035. Be prepared for a more systematic response."
Cao Heping, Peking University economist told the Global Times: "Deepening reforms in eldercare service is a vital step in jump-starting the next round of growth for the world's second-largest economy."
What's Next?
By mid-century, 28 percent of Chinese citizens are expected to be 65 and older, according to the World Health Organization.
China's growing retiree population is sure to strain its economy, prompting Beijing to raise statutory retirement ages for the first time since they were established in the 1950s. The government's push to direct more state capital into the silver economy is expected to streamline the sector and reduce the cost of elderly care services, Beijing-based economist Tian Yun told the Global Times.
"China's age structure change will slow down economic growth," said Xiujian Peng, senior research fellow at Victoria University's Centre of Policy Studies in Melbourne, Australia, told Reuters.
She stressed that the plummeting number of children will continue to shrink the domestic market, while the graying of China's workforce means the country has "less incentives to innovate, and a slower, not faster, productivity improvement."
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