As the only country in the world with an elderly population of over 100 million, China is expediting its pace of establishing a “suitably pluralistic” elderly welfare system meeting the conditions of the country. 

At the 2012 China Forum on the Development of Senior Service Industry and Forum on Establishing Age-Friendly Cities convened in Shanghai, deputy minister of Civil Affairs Dou Yupei pointed out that currently China has already established a sound national scheme for supporting the elderly and orphans in both urban and rural areas. Elderly people who are incapable of working, have no source of income, no statutory support or family support would be supported by the government. Currently, 15 provinces across the country have established a social assistance scheme granting subsidies to people aged above 80, while 14 provinces have set up an old-age subsidy scheme. 

Compared with other countries in the world where aging is an issue, the population of old people in China is huge. There are now 185 million of elderly people aged above 60 in the country. And by 2050, this figure would peak to reach 480 million, accounting for two-fifths of the senior population in Asia and one-quarter of the senior population in the world. In advanced countries in the West such as the UK, France and the US, it generally takes about 100 years for the proportion of the senior population to rise from 10% to 30%. But in China, it is estimated that it will only take 40 years. 

Dou Yupei remarked that to tackle the problem of aging population, China will set up a “suitably pluralistic” elderly welfare system during the 12^th Five-Year Plan period. Efforts will be made to establish an old-age subsidy scheme for people aged over 80 under the coordination of provincial-level authorities to improve the welfare for senior citizens. For regions with the right conditions, the scope of subsidy can be extended and the subsidy standard can be raised gradually to enhance the level of welfare for the aged. 

Meanwhile, China will establish an old-age subsidy scheme under which support services would be offered to elderly people who are advanced in age, disabled, empty nesters or low-income earners. In regions with the right conditions, aged care subsidy can also be granted to disabled elderly people who have financial difficulty. Efforts will also be made to explore the feasibility of providing care insurance and old-age liability insurance. For the elderly and orphans in the urban and rural areas, both centralised and distributed support methods will continue to be adopted to guarantee that their basic living standard will not be lower than the average level of the local residents.