{"id":1750,"date":"2013-11-12T20:00:20","date_gmt":"2013-11-12T19:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/?p=1750"},"modified":"2013-11-12T20:14:53","modified_gmt":"2013-11-12T19:14:53","slug":"demographic-shift-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Grey Future? How the Demographic Shift Affects the PRC"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>A discussion with students at Leiden University and Rotterdam&#8217;s School of Management<\/h2>\n<p>Over the past decades, China has seen a marked demographic shift. Due to the one-child policy, the number of people who are dependent on the family income has decreased compared to the number of people who work to produce that income. Economists like Wei and Hao (2010) have estimated that this \u201cdemographic dividend\u201d may have accounted for up to a sixth of China\u2019s economic growth during the 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty years after experiencing the benefits of this demographic shift, the situation is again changing. The former providers are retiring, and the much smaller next generation of single children is facing the daunting task of supporting China\u2019s aging population. This situation is aggravated by the early retirement age in China, with women generally leaving the labour market at age 55 and men at age 60.<\/p>\n<p>The implications of this demographic change are staggering, both for the economy and for Chinese society: today, roughly <a title=\"The Diplomat: &quot;Population Aging in China: A Mixed Blessing&quot;\" href=\"http:\/\/thediplomat.com\/china-power\/population-aging-in-china-a-mixed-blessing\/\" target=\"_blank\">123 million Chinese citizens are over the age of 65<\/a> \u2013 more than the entire combined population of the United Kingdom and France. <a title=\"BBC Special: &quot;Ageing China&quot;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-19630110\" target=\"_blank\">In thirty years<\/a>, every fourth person in China will be older than 65. In fifty years, it will be every third person.<\/p>\n<p>China is quickly becoming a \u201c4-2-1\u201d society, in which one child has to shoulder the burden of caring for two parents and four grandparents. This development is already proving to be a major challenge to a country where <a title=\"Huffington Post: &quot;Woman Sues Children for Care&quot;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/10\/12\/zhang-zefang-sues-children-china_n_4089978.html\" target=\"_blank\">traditional values like filial piety<\/a> are no longer sufficient to keep young employees financing their elderly relatives, and where <a title=\"New York Times: &quot;No Country for Old Age&quot;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/02\/19\/opinion\/no-country-for-old-age.html\" target=\"_blank\">the pension<\/a> and <a title=\"SCMP on China's healthcare system\" href=\"http:\/\/www.scmp.com\/comment\/insight-opinion\/article\/1336192\/china-must-fix-its-health-care-system\" target=\"_blank\">healthcare systems<\/a> have not caught up to meet the evolving demands.<\/p>\n<p>This week, we will discuss what the broad social, political, and economic implications of China\u2019s demographic changes are, and what policy options might help alleviate the problems. Can the PRC\u2019s <a title=\"The Guardian: &quot;China's welfare system: difficult, inflexible and blatantly unfair?&quot;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2013\/apr\/23\/china-welfare-system-inflexible-unfair\" target=\"_blank\">social security<\/a>\u00a0be reformed on time, or are more and more Chinese doomed to be poor when they retire?<\/p>\n<h3>References<\/h3>\n<p>Wei, Zheng &amp; Hao, Rui (2010): &#8220;Demographic Structure and Economic Growth: Evidence from China&#8221;, <em>Journal of Comparative Economics<\/em> 38, 472-491.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this discussion, students from Leiden University and Rotterdam&#8217;s School of Management debate China&#8217;s demographic shift. With China greying at an alarming rate, are more and more Chinese doomed to be poor when they retire?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[43,111,104,112,115,114,113],"class_list":["post-1750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-studying","tag-china","tag-demographics","tag-economy","tag-healthcare","tag-labour","tag-social-security","tag-welfare","post_format-post-format-image"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>China\u2019s Grey Future? How the Demographic Shift Affects the PRC - Politics East Asia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this discussion, students from Leiden University and Rotterdam&#039;s School of Management debate China&#039;s demographic shift.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China\u2019s Grey Future? How the Demographic Shift Affects the PRC - Politics East Asia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this discussion, students from Leiden University and Rotterdam&#039;s School of Management debate China&#039;s demographic shift.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Politics East Asia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-12T19:00:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-11-12T19:14:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Old_age_950x480opt.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"950\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Florian Schneider\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Florian Schneider\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/studying\\\/demographic-shift-in-china\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/studying\\\/demographic-shift-in-china\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Florian Schneider\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a140bd5ce2c4c52fdeb2b628bc80a1bb\"},\"headline\":\"China\u2019s Grey Future? How the Demographic Shift Affects the PRC\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-12T19:00:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-11-12T19:14:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/studying\\\/demographic-shift-in-china\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":356,\"commentCount\":17,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/studying\\\/demographic-shift-in-china\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/11\\\/Old_age_950x480opt.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"China\",\"demographics\",\"economy\",\"healthcare\",\"labour\",\"social security\",\"welfare\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Studying\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/studying\\\/demographic-shift-in-china\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/studying\\\/demographic-shift-in-china\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/studying\\\/demographic-shift-in-china\\\/\",\"name\":\"China\u2019s Grey Future? How the Demographic Shift Affects the PRC - Politics East Asia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/studying\\\/demographic-shift-in-china\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/studying\\\/demographic-shift-in-china\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/11\\\/Old_age_950x480opt.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-12T19:00:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-11-12T19:14:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a140bd5ce2c4c52fdeb2b628bc80a1bb\"},\"description\":\"In this discussion, students from Leiden University and Rotterdam's School of Management debate China's demographic shift.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/studying\\\/demographic-shift-in-china\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/studying\\\/demographic-shift-in-china\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/11\\\/Old_age_950x480opt.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/11\\\/Old_age_950x480opt.jpg\",\"width\":950,\"height\":480,\"caption\":\"Greying China\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/\",\"name\":\"Politics East Asia\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a140bd5ce2c4c52fdeb2b628bc80a1bb\",\"name\":\"Florian Schneider\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2e3eb496e0894d5a7646b6f4c63b6a341002e4920ea28a86f5b50bfaa26984ec?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2e3eb496e0894d5a7646b6f4c63b6a341002e4920ea28a86f5b50bfaa26984ec?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2e3eb496e0894d5a7646b6f4c63b6a341002e4920ea28a86f5b50bfaa26984ec?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Florian Schneider\"},\"description\":\"Florian is the editor of PoliticsEastAsia.com. He is Professor of Modern China at Leiden University, editor of the journal Asiascape: Digital Asia, and academic director of the Leiden Asia Centre.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.politicseastasia.com\\\/staging\\\/3558\\\/author\\\/schneiderfa\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"China\u2019s Grey Future? How the Demographic Shift Affects the PRC - Politics East Asia","description":"In this discussion, students from Leiden University and Rotterdam's School of Management debate China's demographic shift.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"China\u2019s Grey Future? How the Demographic Shift Affects the PRC - Politics East Asia","og_description":"In this discussion, students from Leiden University and Rotterdam's School of Management debate China's demographic shift.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/","og_site_name":"Politics East Asia","article_published_time":"2013-11-12T19:00:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-11-12T19:14:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":950,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Old_age_950x480opt.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Florian Schneider","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Florian Schneider","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/"},"author":{"name":"Florian Schneider","@id":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/#\/schema\/person\/a140bd5ce2c4c52fdeb2b628bc80a1bb"},"headline":"China\u2019s Grey Future? How the Demographic Shift Affects the PRC","datePublished":"2013-11-12T19:00:20+00:00","dateModified":"2013-11-12T19:14:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/"},"wordCount":356,"commentCount":17,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Old_age_950x480opt.jpg","keywords":["China","demographics","economy","healthcare","labour","social security","welfare"],"articleSection":["Studying"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/","url":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/","name":"China\u2019s Grey Future? How the Demographic Shift Affects the PRC - Politics East Asia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Old_age_950x480opt.jpg","datePublished":"2013-11-12T19:00:20+00:00","dateModified":"2013-11-12T19:14:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/#\/schema\/person\/a140bd5ce2c4c52fdeb2b628bc80a1bb"},"description":"In this discussion, students from Leiden University and Rotterdam's School of Management debate China's demographic shift.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/studying\/demographic-shift-in-china\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Old_age_950x480opt.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Old_age_950x480opt.jpg","width":950,"height":480,"caption":"Greying China"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/","name":"Politics East Asia","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/#\/schema\/person\/a140bd5ce2c4c52fdeb2b628bc80a1bb","name":"Florian Schneider","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2e3eb496e0894d5a7646b6f4c63b6a341002e4920ea28a86f5b50bfaa26984ec?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2e3eb496e0894d5a7646b6f4c63b6a341002e4920ea28a86f5b50bfaa26984ec?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2e3eb496e0894d5a7646b6f4c63b6a341002e4920ea28a86f5b50bfaa26984ec?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Florian Schneider"},"description":"Florian is the editor of PoliticsEastAsia.com. He is Professor of Modern China at Leiden University, editor of the journal Asiascape: Digital Asia, and academic director of the Leiden Asia Centre.","url":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/author\/schneiderfa\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1758,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions\/1758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicseastasia.com\/staging\/3558\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}