Because of the low birth rate

China is making plans to increase the life expectancy of its residents by an additional year

  • China allowed a family to have two children instead of one, after the birth rate was low.

    Father

  • China suffers from a high number of retirees and a low birth rate.

    From the source

  • Some observers believe that the solution lies in rolling back the policy of limiting the number of births per family.

    From the source

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To overcome the decline in birth rates and the inflating number of retirees, China seeks to preserve the health of its people so that they can work for longer years. Over the next five years, the Chinese government plans to increase the average life expectancy of its citizens for a year, raise the legal retirement age and encourage more births by reducing the burden Fiscal spending is on parents, according to a draft economic blueprint released early this month at the start of the annual legislative session in Beijing.

Known as the 14th Five-Year Plan, this plan laid out broad proposals for economic and social change, including policies for building a "healthy China" and discussing wide-ranging demographic flaws.

China's legislature, the National People's Assembly, is expected to approve the draft at the end of its annual week-long session.

China's leaders have long expressed concern about the demographic future in their country, which has a population of 1.4 billion.

The rapidly expanding elderly population threatens to reduce growth and strain the nation's finances, at a time when the current and future workforce shrinks.

Demographers have warned that the "Covid-19" pandemic is likely to make matters worse.

Demographers and economists say the birth rate in China has doubled last year.

This could mean fewer babies were born in the country in 2020 than in any other year since 1961, when China suffered mass starvation.

And in a report last month, the London-based consultancy Capital Economics said it expects China's workforce to shrink by more than 0.5% annually.

Lack of details

While the details in the draft plan were inadequate, "the basic policy position is quite clear: the country needs more children and at the same time it has to take better care of the elderly," said the US-based scholar and longtime critic. For China's population policies, Yi Fuxian.

According to the plan, Beijing hopes to raise China's average life expectancy over 78 years by 2025 from 77.3 years in 2019. The plan also aims to expand basic pension coverage to 95% of retirees from the current 91%, and provide facilities to care for elderly people with disabilities. Physical or mental disabilities, in two million families.

Other goals were worded more vaguely, and details are likely to be released in the coming months and years.

The draft plan made clear that the retirement age in China, which is one of the lowest in the world, would be raised in a flexible manner through "small adjustments", without making it clear that this was a long-discussed but unpopular proposal.

The draft plan promised efforts to achieve "appropriate levels of childbirth," such as providing daycare services, affordable care for the elderly, creating child-friendly cities with amenities such as playgrounds and after-school activities, and exploring changes in parental leave policies.

Chinese law provides for three-month maternity leave, but no paternity leave.

silence

The document has been silent on whether Beijing will lift birth restrictions, and China relaxed such controls in 2016, ending the decades-old one-child policy to allow all parents to have two children.

Some economists have said they are skeptical that the new policy proposals will do enough to solve demographic problems in China. Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, believes that extending the retirement age is definitely something that can help over the next five years. There is a limit to how much you can do in this aspect. ”

China is known to be very slow in raising the retirement age amid widespread public opposition, as few citizens welcomed the prospect of spending more years in the workforce.

Under a policy unchanged since the 1950s, the state allows men to retire at the age of 60, while factory workers can retire as early as the age of 50.

Small, incremental steps

In 2015, Chinese officials promised that they would raise the retirement age in small and gradual steps, after consulting the public.

The Minister of Labor said at the time that one of the scenarios could include a two-month increase in the first year, followed by an additional four months in the following year.

Government researchers suggested raising the retirement age by three months every year, and some analysts said that the government could raise the retirement age for women first, making them at the same level for men.

But after a public outcry, the government exceeded the 2017 target date, unveiled draft changes, and largely moved away from publicly discussing the idea in the years that followed.

• Demographers and economists say that the birth rate in China doubled last year.

This could mean fewer babies were born in the country in 2020.

• China is known to be very slow in raising the retirement age amid widespread public opposition. Under a policy that has not changed since the 1950s, the state allows men to retire at the age of 60, while factory workers can retire early at the age of 50.

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