The Aging Dragon - China

When it comes to providing solutions to China’s growing elderly population, the coastal city of Dalian in Liaoning province has had to adapt more quickly than the rest of the nation. In 2007, elderly residents of Dalian accounted for 16.85 percent of its population, which is far above the national average of 12.26 percent. According to the United Nations, Chinese aged 65 years and older will account for 16 percent of the population by 2030 and this will increase to 24 percent by 2050. In places like Shanghai, the population has been aging since 1979. It currently has more than 3 million registered individuals over the age of 60 accounting for over 22 percent of its population. As Chinese society changes and modernizes this large demographic shift is set to become one of the major challenges that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will have to manage in order to maintain stability. The most pressing question that the CCP will face in the next 20 to 40 years is who will take care China’s elderly. The growing demographic shift is accompanied by mitigating factors that make this issue of more concern than in other aging societies such as Canada or the United States. China’s immature economy is not yet equip to handle a flood of elderly individuals that will need some sort of social assistance in their golden years particularly for those individuals who cannot rely on traditional methods of eldercare as a result, in the absence of independent social organizations, the state will be forced to fill in this void and shoulder most of the burden of caring for the China’s elderly by developing methods for the delivery of eldercare that are in line with China unique circumstances.
Elderly citizens in China are at a great disadvantage compared to those in the West because the population in China is aging well before the nation has fully developed its economy or a reliable social welfare system. For a number of elderly Chinese today particularly in rural areas they were