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‘Good intentions’: China’s canteens for seniors are losing money and shutting down from lack of demand
- The subsidised cafeterias are part of an ambitious community welfare plan to promote urban amenities such as nurseries and convenience stores
- Oversupply of dining halls could be result of ‘competition’ between local officials to ‘fight for Beijing’s political attention’, analyst says
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Many of China’s government-subsidised canteens for seniors, part of an ambitious nationwide community welfare project, have shut down due to tight local budgets and lack of demand.
Community canteens have closed in dozens of major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Xian, Shenyang and Hangzhou, according to mainland media. Some of the closures have reportedly resulted in hundreds of elderly people being unable to get refunds on the prepaid cards they registered with the cafeterias.
Of the more than 2,000 community canteens set up in the eastern city of Suzhou in recent years, only about 900 are still in operation, state broadcaster CCTV reported last week. It said half of the surviving canteens were operating at a loss.
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CCTV said six of a total of nine canteens had folded “due to losses” in a district in a central province, but did not name the exact location. Further investigation revealed that over 60 per cent of the province’s community canteens were running at a loss, according to the report.
In Beijing, a survey of 40 community canteens showed that more than half of them had lost money, and many said their losses were increasing.
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