{"id":613734,"date":"2026-09-27T22:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T22:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/613734\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T22:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T22:20:13","slug":"as-chinese-retirees-boost-nations-economy-some-hope-for-greater-consumer-freedom-in-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/613734\/","title":{"rendered":"As Chinese retirees boost nation\u2019s economy, some hope for greater consumer freedom in society"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Even though he was an experienced swimmer and a medical check-up showed he had no condition that made exercise unsafe, 66-year-old Zhao Xin said he was stopped by staff at a local swimming pool from swimming with his grandson because of his age.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThe pool\u2019s staff said it wasn\u2019t able to mitigate the risks of exercise for older people, and that if it admitted swimmers over 65, local authorities would penalise it,\u201d Zhao said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cAfter I retired, I found that many times I want to spend money but am simply not allowed to,\u201d said the former accountant from China\u2019s eastern Zhejiang province.<\/p>\n<p>It is these energetic retirees like Zhao who are propping up China\u2019s <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3367459\/chinas-inbound-tourism-revenue-projected-reach-us470-billion-2040-ubs?pgtype=topic?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">persistently lacklustre consumption<\/a> in recent years. From rail travel to purchases of digital devices and cars, spending by China\u2019s older cohort has seen rapid growth recently, research shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even though he was an experienced swimmer and a medical check-up showed he had no condition that made&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[302157,254740,14324,138,607,302149,91012,302154,11085,219,111,139,302150,69,14535,13011,294,302152,302151,4847,302153,302155,58294,302156],"class_list":["post-613734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-age-bias","tag-age-discrimination","tag-ageing-population","tag-business","tag-china","tag-china-population","tag-china-society","tag-chinas-great-famine","tag-consumption","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nyu-shanghai","tag-nz","tag-pension-funds","tag-retirees","tag-retirement","tag-shanghai-association-for-elderly-care-services","tag-shanghai-bar-association","tag-silver-economy","tag-yang-wei","tag-zhao-xin","tag-zhejiang","tag-zhou-hong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}