China population: plan to lift retirement age stokes workers’ anxiety as demographic crisis looms
- Beijing has announced in its new five-year plan it will delay the retirement age to combat the economic effects of rapid aging
- The change has sparked widespread concern about the impact on consumption, fertility rates and personal investments
Speculation is running rampant among Chinese about how many years of pension income may be lost after the government announced plans to gradually increase the nation’s mandatory retirement age.
The move has sparked deep concern among working and middle class citizens, many of whom may now have to work for years more than planned and are scrambling to get their finances in order.
On Chinese microblogging site Weibo, a popular post on the new policy has been read more than 210 million times and garnered more than 19,000 comments in the past two weeks.
Critics have raised concerns about the effect of the change on consumption, fertility rates and investments.
No one knows what an ageing China will look like in 20 years, we all have a lot of fear and uncertainty about it
“No one knows what an ageing China will look like in 20 years, we all have a lot of fear and uncertainty about it,” said Gong Wentao, a Shenzhen-based IT specialist in his late 40s. “My colleagues and I have been chatting a lot about how to prepare for it.”
Gong said some of his co-workers planned to sell properties in lower-tier cities in anticipation of higher vacancy rates, while others were considering mortgaging their homes to invest in high-return financial products. But he was opting for a more modest strategy: cutting daily spending.