Chinese netizens have voiced anxiety over the government's recent announcement that it plans to introduce new retirement ages.
Starting in 2025, China will gradually raise the ages of statutory retirement for the first time since they were established in the 1950s, with the change being phased in over 15 years, Beijing announced on Friday. The world's second most-populous country faces a fast-graying workforce and one of the world's lowest birth rates.
On Friday, the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, approved the decision to phase in the new statutory retirement ages. Men's retirement age is set to rise from 60 to 63, and women's from 50 to 55 for blue-collar workers and 55 to 58 for those in white-collar positions.
The policy is expected to add one month of work every four months.
The announcement, posted by China Central Television on the popular microblogging platform Weibo, quickly gathered more than 26,000 comments, with many netizens expressing concern and frustration with the pressures facing younger generations.
One user wrote: "After finally buying a house, getting married, and having children, now we are being urged to have more children. And now retirement is delayed—we don't know what will happen to us next."
Another user said only two types of people need not worry about delayed retirement: "those who do not live to retirement age" and the unemployed.
A user on the video-sharing platform Bilibili expressed concern over the long-term implications of the reforms for younger people: "The Post-90s generation is practically certain to retire at 65 years old."
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.
Though the new statutory retirement ages are higher than before, they are still lower than those in many other major economies. In the U.K., the retirement age is 66. In the U.S. and Germany, it is 66 or 67, depending on the retiree's date of birth.
At the end of 2023, China had 297 million people over the age of 60, according to government statistics. That number is projected to reach 400 million by 2035.
When the current retirement ages were set in the 1950s, life expectancy in China was in the 40s. As recent decades saw improvements in living standards, the life expectancy rose rapidly and now stands at 78 years, according to the U.N. Population Division.
The Chinese government has emphasized the reform's flexibility. As long as workers meet the minimum pension contribution requirements, they will have the option to retire up to three years earlier than the new statutory ages. The flexibility is seen as a way to soften the effect of the changes.
Some experts argue that the reform is necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of China's pension system. Xiujian Peng, a senior research fellow at Victoria University in Australia, told the Associated Press: "We have more people coming into the retirement age, and so the pension fund is [facing] high pressure. That's why I think it's now time to act seriously."
The reform seeks to address a looming pension shortfall in a future that may see fewer young workers supporting a growing elderly population. China's fertility rate—just 1 birth per woman—remains one of the world's lowest, despite the relaxation of the one-child policy and various government efforts to encourage childbearing.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
