![\"\"\/](\"https:https:\/\/images.csmonitor.com\/csm\/2026\/01\/1121_ORETIRE_SKYLINE.jpg?alias=standard_1200x800\")
<\/p>\nIn the gritty industrial town of Tangshan in northern China, Lin Liang pauses by the hulking mining company where he has worked in maintenance for 15 years. He has decades to go until he can retire with a pension \u2013 longer than he had planned, thanks to a recent mandate raising the retirement age across China.<\/p>\n
Facing a rapidly aging population, which threatens to bankrupt the country’s pension system, Beijing last year started implementing its first increase in retirement age since the 1950s.<\/p>\n
Younger workers such as Mr. Lin will be impacted most, with the retirement age for men gradually increasing from 60 to 63 over the next several years. The retirement age for women will rise from 50 to 55 for blue-collar workers, and 55 to 58 for white-collar workers. Though China\u2019s statutory retirement ages are low by global standards, the change represents a hardship, especially for those who are engaged in physical labor or face greater job insecurity. Workers\u2019 required contribution periods \u2013 or the amount of time the workers or their employer must pay into the pension system in order to reap the benefits \u2013 will also increase from 15 to 20 years between 2030 and 2039.<\/p>\n
Why We Wrote This<\/p>\n
To support its rapidly aging population and preserve its pension system, China is raising its retirement age for the first time in 70 years. At the same time, demand for broader pension reform is growing.<\/p>\n
Contributions from Mr. Lin and others are currently supporting a ballooning cohort of elderly Chinese. About 22% of China\u2019s population is over age 60, a figure projected to rise to 28% \u2013 or 402 million people \u2013 by 2040. The trend is driven by longer life expectancies and declining birth rates, exacerbated by China\u2019s decades-long one-child policy that lasted until 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the pension age is fixed and people are living longer, pensions are going to get more expensive and eventually the system is going to blow a gasket,\u201d says Nicholas Barr, an economics professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science. A 2019 report by the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences predicted that, without reforms, the main state fund that finances future pensions would be depleted by 2035.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has to be an increase in the state pension age,\u201d says Dr. Barr, who advised China on pension reforms from 2005 to 2010. \u201cBut that leaves a lot of other problems unsolved,\u201d including deep inequalities in China\u2019s pension system, and hard economic trade-offs needed to sustain its funding.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\tAnn Scott Tyson\/The Christian Science Monitor\n<\/p>\n
Tangshan, an industrial town in northern China, was rebuilt after a massive earthquake in 1976. Many workers there hope to someday cash in on China’s urban pension program.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShaky job market<\/p>\n
Wearing a vermillion Mandarin cap and traditional clothing, Mr. Qiao bangs a gong and welcomes visitors to Tangshan Banquet \u2013 a pavilion crowded with vendors cooking traditional snacks such as fried pastries, meat skewers, and sesame brittle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr. Qiao, who asked that his first name be withheld for privacy reasons, worked for decades at a local chemical plant \u2013 grueling labor that included smokestack duty \u2013 before retiring early eight years ago.<\/p>\n
But Mr. Qiao can\u2019t complain about his pension, which is about 3,500 yuan a month, or about $500. And he supplements that with his earnings as a greeter at this popular food court in his hometown. He hardly considers this gig work, he says: \u201cI want to [be here]. This job is fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
With his pension secured, Mr. Qiao is better off than many workers, both young and old, \u201cconcerned about whether they can even find a job on the labor market,\u201d says Xian Huang, an associate professor of comparative politics at Rutgers University, who researches China\u2019s social welfare system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The unemployment rate among young Chinese has hovered close to 20% since the pandemic. Some in their 50s are also working overtime to support families and meet pension contribution requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The decision to raise the retirement age sparked criticism online, where discussions on pension reform are full of \u201cdisagreement regarding … responsibility and cost sharing\u201d between workers and corporations, says Dr. Huang. Some comments suggested the change is unrealistic, and penalizes young people. They also questioned whether private companies would employ older workers, noting how Chinese tech companies regularly lay off workers over the age of 35.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me,\u201d asked one netizen, \u201cwhat are we supposed to do for the remaining 30 years of our lives?\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t![\"\"\/](\"https:https:\/\/images.csmonitor.com\/csm\/2026\/01\/1121_ORETIRE_QIAO.jpg?alias=standard_1200x800\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\tAnn Scott Tyson\/The Christian Science Monitor\n<\/p>\n
Mr. Qiao, a retired chemical plant employee, is now working as a greeter at a food pavilion serving traditional snacks, in Tangshan, China, Dec. 5, 2025.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPension disparities<\/p>\n
Mr. Lin, for his part, isn\u2019t thrilled about the change. But he accepts it as necessary to sustain the pension system.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the younger workers, what\u2019s important is how much they\u2019re getting paid and the retirement benefits,\u201d he says, standing under a wintry sky near the Tangshan Mining Industry\u00a0Co. factory. \u201cWe have to consider the next generation, and not be too selfish.\u201d<\/p>\n
But when it comes time for that next generation to retire, their pensions will depend largely on where they were born and live.<\/p>\n
Of the more than 1 billion Chinese who participate in the system, about 534 million fall under a plan for urban employees and retirees, such as Mr. Qiao, that in 2023 paid recipients about 3,742 yuan, or $537 a month. Yet another 538 million people \u2013 rural residents, including migrants and unsalaried urban workers \u2013 qualify for a far less generous plan that in 2023 paid about 223 yuan, or $32 a month. This reflects a fundamental inequality in Chinese society<\/a> between rural and urban communities. \u00a0<\/p>\n Civil servants and other government employees receive larger pensions, currently estimated at 6,000 to 7,000 yuan a month, according to a 2025 report by the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have seen \u2026 increasing perceptions of unfairness,\u201d and declining faith in China\u2019s meritocracy, Dr. Huang says. People believe their economic well-being is determined by regional disparities, the tax system, and other factors \u2013 rather than how hard they work, she says.<\/p>\n Frustration has led pensioners to protest local government cuts to their healthcare benefits in recent years.<\/p>\n Aware of the political sensitivity of pension reform, China\u2019s leaders have moved slowly to address it, despite mounting demographic and economic pressures. Beijing first floated the idea of raising the retirement age more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n Beijing\u2019s goal is to replace the decentralized, regional management of pensions with a national system by 2035.\u00a0<\/p>\n But its objectives of expanding pension coverage and keeping the system solvent conflict with competing priorities of robust economic growth and employment.<\/p>\n Ultimately, China \u201cneeds to spend less on pensions over time,\u201d says Dr. Barr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the gritty industrial town of Tangshan in northern China, Lin Liang pauses by the hulking mining company…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-426620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}