CHINA - Retirement Age Raised
China will “gradually raise” its retirement age for the first time since the 1950s, as the country confronts an ageing population and a dwindling pension budget.
The top legislative body approved proposals to raise the statutory retirement age from 50 to 55 for women in blue-collar jobs, and from 55 to 58 for females in white-collar jobs.
Men will see an increase from 60 to 63.
Starting 2030, employees will also have to make more contributions to the social security system in order to receive pensions. By 2039, they would have to clock 20 years of contributions to access their pensions.
The plan to raise retirement ages and adjust the pension policy was based on “a comprehensive assessment of the average life expectancy, health conditions, the population structure, the level of education and workforce supply in China,” Xinhua reported.
“Men in most European countries retire when they are 65 or 67, while women do at 60. This is going to be the trend in our country as well,” one Weibo user said.
China’s huge population has fallen for a second consecutive year in 2023 as its birth rate continues to decline.
Meanwhile, its average life expectancy has risen to 78.2 years, officials said earlier this year.
Over the next decade, about 300 million people, who are currently aged 50 to 60, are set to leave the Chinese workforce. This is the country’s largest age group, nearly equivalent to the size of the US population.
-www.bbc.com, 13 September 2024
Arno's Commentary
What was popularly proclaimed just a few decades ago—namely, global over-population—is now found to be untrue. What has happened in China in the last quarter century, is nothing short of miraculous. The GDP in 2000 rose 8%, placing the per capita PPP to $3,800.
Religiously, the CIA Factbook reports that 21.9% adhere to folk religions, 18.2% are Buddhist, and 5.1% Christian (which means over 71.9 million Christians, nominally).
Of interest is the fact that China’s retirement ages are among the lowest in the world. And, one must add, life expectancy in China continues to rise. For 2024, it’s listed as 78.7 years. This implies good healthcare, quality food, and less dangerous manual labor. Infant mortality per 1,000 live births is 6.2. Physicians per 1,000 population are 2.2, and hospital beds 4.3 per 1,000 population. In the 1950s, life expectancy was only 65.5 years.
These statistics are equally true for virtually the whole world. Longer lives, better health, high-quality nourishment, and more luxuries being added yearly.
Special attention must be paid to China’s miraculous growth in global manufacturing. From a third-world country, China today leads the world with 31.6% of global manufacturing output. That, according to various sources, is expected to increase due to their modernization of high-tech facilities.
Safeguardglobal.com reports: “China’s advanced manufacturing includes electronics, machinery and textiles. These strengths keep China at the top of country rankings for the world’s manufacturing output.”
Our concern targets the building of the Church, and as is self-evident and supported by various reliable sources, the Church is growing. What happened in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago, is happening in China: “And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women” (Acts 5:14).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
