China braves aging conundrum with whole-life-cycle reforms

A staff member takes care of an elder at a nursing home in Rizhao City, east China's Shandong Province, May 25, 2024. [Xinhua/Guo Xulei]

by Xinhua writers Wang Aihua and Yang Qi

BEIJING -- With a population of 1.4 billion aging at a rapid rate, China is braving the mounting challenge with a portfolio of reforms covering the full life cycle from the young to the elderly.

Reform measures were highlighted in a key resolution, including optimizing the supply of basic elderly care service, developing the silver economy, and establishing an insurance system of long-term care for seniors with special difficulties.

The document, adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) last month, also stressed that China will increase support for childbirth, childcare and education.

Yuan Xin, a professor at Nankai University and vice president of the China Population Association, told Xinhua that the policies aim to build a more sound population development system by stepping up support for childcare, stimulating young couples to have children, and optimizing elderly care service.

BOOST COMMUNITY ELDERLY CARE SERVICES

In the resolution, China pledged further efforts to develop community-based facilities, improve the operation mechanisms for public-run institutions, and encourage and guide the participation of enterprises and other non-governmental actors in service provision.

Official figures show China has nearly 300 million citizens aged 60 or above. The number is expected to top 400 million by 2033 and approach 500 million by around 2050, accounting for nearly 35 percent of the total population then.

About 90 percent of this population lives at home, seven percent rely on community support, and the remaining rely on commercial institutions for daily care.

Responding to this situation, China has made a series of efforts to develop home- and community-based elderly care services and cultivate community-based facilities since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012. Numerous community institutions, catering homes and entertainment facilities dedicated to seniors have been established across the country.

Since 2021, a total of 4.5 billion yuan of the central budget has been allocated to support projects in this regard, providing door-to-door home-care services and local dining assistance for seniors, and home-care beds for economically disadvantaged individuals with full or partial disabilities.

Noting that China still faces challenges including insufficient such services and a shortage of nursing personnel, Lu Zhiyuan, minister of civil affairs, said greater efforts will be directed toward shoring up the weaknesses in rural areas to ensure that basic elderly care services are accessible to all senior individuals.

Experts believe that in order to cultivate community elderly care service institutions, support in planning, land, finance, taxation and talent should be strengthened. The development of institutions that operate on a relatively large scale, or in chains, with specialized services and influential brands should be encouraged.

"We must prioritize the needs of the elderly and put great efforts in training professional personnel in community elderly care services, to deliver the services that the elderly truly need at home and places around them," said Zheng Zhigang, a senior fellow at the China Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics.

DEVELOP SILVER ECONOMY

At a press conference held on Friday, Li Yongxin, an official in charge of elderly care at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said efforts will focus on innovating new smart scenarios of the elderly care industry, developing new business forms, and promoting integration with other industries such as housekeeping, medical care and tourism.

The silver economy plays an important role in expanding domestic demand and improving the well-being of the elderly. The new generation of retirees have received better education and work opportunities and generally possess stronger purchasing power, greater desire to travel, and more diverse leisure needs, according to Wang Jianxin, director of Yunnan's old-age health industry development association.

The current scale of China's silver economy is estimated at about 7 trillion yuan (about 980 billion U.S. dollars) and it is expected to reach about 30 trillion yuan by 2035. Earlier this year, China released a guideline to strengthen the silver economy.

Figures show by the end of 2023, over 490,000 Chinese companies, both state-owned and private, were engaged in the elderly care business, focusing primarily on smart health, health-centered tourism and anti-aging sectors.

Experts foresee deeper integration of AI technologies in such businesses in the coming years, particularly in smart household products, wearable devices, and robots, using 5G, big data, cloud computing and other advanced techniques to achieve higher accuracy and interaction between humans and robots.

ENCOURAGE CHILDBIRTH

China pledged in the resolution to devote efforts to building a birth-friendly society by reducing the cost of childbirth, childcare and education, improving maternity and paternity leaves, issuing subsidies and increasing personal income tax deduction for those with children.

In 2013, China allowed couples to have a second child if either parent was an only child, and in 2016 allowed married couples to have two children, phasing out the decades-long one-child policy. In 2021, it announced support for couples who wish to have a third child.

Chinese legislators are currently considering a law to ensure that preschool education is accessible to all children. Among the highlights of the draft were provisions to promote free preschool education and facilitate easier kindergarten admission for children with disabilities.

In recent years, China has converted many private kindergartens with exorbitant fees into non-profit institutions. According to the Ministry of Education, in 2023, a total of 236,000 non-profit kindergartens, both public and private, made up 86.2 percent of all kindergartens and served 90.8 percent of enrolled children in the country.

Between 2020 and 2023, China allocated 3.6 billion yuan (about 504 million U.S. dollars) of the central budget to develop public-benefit care services for children aged under three. It also encouraged employers, communities and eligible kindergartens to offer childcare services to help take a load off the shoulders of parents.

Yuan said the ultimate goal is to make young people "want to, dare to, and are able to" have children. "We need to build an age-friendly society focusing not just on the elderly, but also other age groups in the life cycle," he added.