Almasalla news | Arab Tourism Portal News
By: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt
When the People’s Republic of China was founded, life expectancy stood at just 36 years, and most people lived in the countryside.
Today this figure has more than doubled to 78 years and 2/3 of all Chinese live in cities.
Nevertheless, China’s statutory retirement age remains at 60 for men and 55 for women. With a quarter of the population in retirement age, sustaining these about 350 million people (equal to the complete population of the USA) is getting more and more costly.
It is said China is getting old before it gets rich, especially in light of the systemic economic problems encountered in the 2020s.
For a long time, China watchers have agreed that changing the retirement age is a risky business, even though it is long overdue.
Now, at the recent Third Plenum, it seems that in the next five years, a gradual raising of the statutory retirement age over the next five years has been announced, albeit in very general terms and without a detailed timeframe or end age.
Among Chinese experts, 65 years has been discussed as the minimum level that the Chinese economy can handle.
It will be interesting to see if this ballon d’essai disappears again or will be followed by concrete action. The first reactions to Social Media seem – not surprisingly – to be negative.
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