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China’s ageing population prompts plan to deal with looming silver shock
- Five-point strategy unveiled in first policy paper aimed at the most daunting social and political challenge of coming decades
- Estimates say over-60s will make up one third of the population by 2050
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Phoebe Zhangin Shenzhen
China has outlined a five-point strategy for managing its ageing population in its first policy paper to tackle the country’s most daunting social and political challenges of the coming decades.
The paper, jointly issued by the Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council, acknowledged that the country faced a serious ageing problem but said China must “find its own way out, and that means taking a path with Chinese characteristics”.
The document does not give a specific estimate of China’s elderly population but China’s National Community on Ageing has estimated that, by 2050, those aged over 60 could reach 487 million, about one third of the population.
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According to the paper, which was published by official news agency Xinhua on Thursday, Beijing is calling for an active response to the ageing problem with short-term, medium-term and long-term goals, to be achieved by 2022, 2035 and 2050 respectively.
These years correspond to China’s goals for achieving socialist modernisation – with attaining common prosperity for the general population one of the yardsticks for measuring success.
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