Opinion | Hong Kong is failing its elderly, and they deserve better

Name: China 2020 census records slowest population growth in decades
Uploaded: 2021-07-25T22:45:09.000Z
Duration: 10 min 42 s
Description: China 2020 census records slowest population growth in decades

The government’s plan appears to be to offload its problems elsewhere and encourage elderly Hongkongers to retire to mainland cities

Covid-19 has confirmed that our elderly are seen as burdens instead of human beings who deserve to live happy, rewarding lives regardless of their age

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

An elderly person holds an umbrella at the Yue Kwong Chuen estate in Aberdeen on July 8. Photo: Sam Tsang

Alice Wu

Published: 6:45am, 26 Jul 2021Updated: 6:45am, 26 Jul 2021

Hong Kong’s first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, having made “care for the elderly” a policy directive, set up the Elderly Commission in 1997 to advise on the formulation of comprehensive policies. Its remit included improving the quality of life for our elderly and providing them with a sense of security, belonging, health and worthiness.

Fast forward to 2021 and how far have we come in addressing their needs and tackling our ageing population? We’ve done pretty poorly, to say the least.

At last count, some 516,000 elderly people – more than 44 per cent of the total elderly population – are impoverished. The poverty rate for the elderly is more than double that of the overall population, and those are 2018 figures.

The latest government figures show that the city’s population aged 65 or above has grown to almost 19 per cent. That is expected to balloon to more than 30 per cent by 2039 and 34 per cent by 2049. Also, for the first time, there were more deaths than births in the city last year.

And yet, such figures are apparently not alarming enough. When Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was recently asked about the double whammy of Hong Kong’s declining and ageing population, she said she was not too worried.

10:42

China 2020 census records slowest population growth in decades

Lam appears to believe she has a good strategy to tackle the issue. Her plan is to make up for the shortfall of young people by luring others to relocate to Hong Kong. So far so good, except not that long ago she said she wanted our young people to leave Hong Kong for better opportunities in other cities in the Greater Bay Area.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x