November 2025

Positive aging takes root in China via community engagement

As China’s 1960s generation enters old age, a societal shift is underway, with positive attitudes toward aging becoming established and fueling an increasing number of seniors seeking fulfilling and diverse lives through community engagement. With hair dyed red and a tendency to speak quickly, Cui Xinyun, 71, appears young and energetic. When Cui started talking about her volunteer work, her eyes lit up. “Our community is like a big family. While helping others, I receive warmth and kindness too,” she...

October 2025

Adapting health, economic and social policies to address population aging in China

By Evandro F. Fang, Yuan Fang, Guobing Chen, He-Ling Wang, Jianying Zhang, Chenkai Wu, Jing Liao, Chenglong Xie, Xiaoting Liu, Kan Wang, Yang Liu, Guang Yang, Qian Wang, Long-Tao He, Jun Li, Hou-Zao Chen, Lin Kang, Yawen Jiang, Huanxing Su, Hong Jiang, Na He, Jun Tao, Sean Xiao Leng, Richard C. Siow, Chunrong Liu, Hafiz T. A. Khan, Yuanli Liu, Hisaya Kato, Takashi Sasaki, Jong In Kim, Andrea Britta Maier, Lin Zhang, Lene Juel Rasmussen, Jean Woo, Jing Wu...

How China’s aging boom is turned into an investment story

With 300 million seniors and a shrinking workforce, China's 'silver economy' is emerging as one of its most durable new growth engines Residents of a community for senior citizens on the outskirts of Beijing. Retired factory supervisor Zhang Meihua starts every morning with a brisk walk around a new riverside park in Chengdu, tracking her steps on a smartwatch made by Huawei. "I never cared about gadgets before," she said. "But my children worry if I don't share my health data....

China Makes Maternity Payment Change in Bid To Boost Birth Rate

A total of 25 Chinese provinces will be distributing maternity leave payments directly to mothers by next month, as part of a broader effort to reverse the country’s flagging birth rate, officials said on Monday. Why It Matters Roughly two-thirds of the global population now lives in countries where the fertility rate has fallen below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman, according to the French Institute for Demographic Studies. China’s fertility rate—at just 1.0—is among the lowest in the world, raising alarm over...

September 2025

China’s local pension fund reaps over 5 pct investment return in 2024

China's local pension fund saw a return on investments of 5.52 percent in 2024, official data showed on Monday. The fund, managed by the National Council for Social Security Fund (NCSSF), generated investment income of nearly 105.69 billion yuan (about 14.87 billion U.S. dollars) last year, according to the NCSSF's annual report. Despite rising economic challenges at home and abroad in 2024, the NCSSF managed to preserve and grow the value of the fund, thereby helping to bolster the country's efforts...

Has Population Aging Led to Strategic Shifts in Enterprises?

By Hanteng Li, Yun Qin & Yuhang Wang  This paper uses Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2023 as a sample to systematically examine the impact pathways and mechanisms through which population aging influences corporate strategic transformation. The study finds a significant positive relationship between population aging and corporate strategic transformation, and this conclusion remains robust under multiple sensitivity tests. Further analysis of moderating effects indicates that a firm’s innovation capability plays an important moderating role in the relationship between...

Humanoid Robots Will Cater to China’s Aging Population

Robots will play a growing role in caring for China's elderly, industry insiders say, as robotics firms move to tap into the country's expanding "silver economy." Why It Matters China, like the rest of East Asia, is grappling with a flagging birth rate coupled with a fast-aging workforce. People aged 65 and older already make up about 15 percent of its 1.4 billion citizens, according to United Nations data. Demographers expect China to join Japan and South Korea as a "super-aged" society, where more...

August 2025

China Is Trying to Expand Its Social Safety Net. Yet Many Chinese Are Worried.

As of Sept. 1, all employers in China must contribute to benefits for their employees, to support their pensions, medical care, maternity leave and more. That should come as good news to many ordinary Chinese, given how threadbare China’s social safety net has been. But rather than celebrating, many in China have reacted with worry and frustration. Small business owners have said that their labor costs will skyrocket. Workers have speculated that their bosses will lay them off or lower their...

Aging population pressures China’s pension system.

China's rapidly aging population puts pressure on the pension system that needs to be addressed China, a major developing country with a large population, is undergoing exceptionally rapid demographic aging. The most urgent priority for China's pension finance sector is to tackle aging-related challenges and enhance the sustainability of the pension system, which has transitioned from a pay-as-you-go model to a hybrid structure that combines social pooling with individually funded accounts. The sector currently confronts several major challenges. Foremost is the uneven...

China. Will retirees be job market winners as China targets social insurance dodgers?

Increased scrutiny of businesses in China that evade their social insurance obligations looks set to further boost the employment of retirees, prompting widespread concerns as a record number of university graduates tries to find work. It all came to a head recently when recruitment notices put out by the McDonald’s fast food chain, which has been employing retirees for years, sparked an emotional response on Chinese social media platforms. “The logic behind it is simple – hiring retirees means companies don’t...