While millions of Frenchmen continue demonstrating against Macron’s law to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, most Americans and Europeans, who mostly have to work till 65 or 67 to get a full pension if they get one, ignore that in China, average retirement stands at… 55.
Since 1951, employees in China have been able to retire at age 60 for men, at age 55 for female employees and managers and at age 50 for female workers. The national average retirement age is 54.11, which is lower than in most developed countries. According to a recent survey, 74 percent of the Chinese citizens would like to retire before age 55, while only 6 per cent would like to do so at age 61.
Demographers say that raising the retirement age is a rational and timely decision considering the country’s changing demographic structure: life expectancy has risen from around 44 years in 1960 to 78 years as of 2021, higher than in the United States, and is projected to exceed 80 years by 2050. China’s National Health Commission expects the cohort of people aged 60, and over, to rise from 280 million to more than 400 million by 2035 – equal to the entire current populations of Britain and the United States combined.
According to a March 14 Reuters wire, “Jin Weigang, president of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences, said China was eyeing a ‘progressive, flexible and differentiated path to raising the retirement age,’ meaning that it would be delayed initially by a few months, which would be subsequently increased.”
China has yet to formally announce the change. Prime Minister Li Qiang said that the government would conduct rigorous studies and analyses to roll out a policy prudently in discourse. (https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-raise-retirement-age-deal-with-aging-population-media-2023-03-14/)
