July 2024
25Jul

U.S. states are ordering their pension funds to sell their China investments

As state treasurer, Vivek Malek pushed Missouri’s main retirement system to pull its investments from Chinese companies, making Missouri among the first nationally to do so. Now Malek is touting the Chinese divestment as he seeks reelection in an Aug. 6 Republican primary against challengers who also are denouncing financial connections to China. The Missouri treasurer’s race highlights a new facet of opposition to China, which has been cast as a top threat to the U.S. by many candidates seeking...

July 25, 2024
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24Jul

China. Flexible model needed for raising the retirement age

The top authorities have said in a recent resolution issued after a top-level meeting that China will gradually raise the statutory retirement age in a prudent and orderly manner. As one of the important measures to deal with China's aging society, delaying the retirement age has been an issue of top concern since 2013 when it was first raised. Given that it is closely related to pensions, and also involves the fairness of different groups, the country needs to deal...

July 24, 2024
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22Jul

China to allow delayed retirement to combat population woes

 China will gradually raise its statutory retirement age, now among the world's lowest, to allow people to work longer, as it struggles to relieve soaring pressure on pension budgets, with many provinces already facing deficits. The reform is urgent, with life expectancy having risen in China to 78 years by 2021 from about 44 years in 1960, outstripping the United States, and is projected to exceed 80 years by 2050.   Sunday's announcement came in a key policy document that also rolled...

July 22, 2024
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June 2024
24Jun

German Allianz to invest in China’s mega pension company with 2% stake

 Allianz Global Investors (AGI), one of the investment arms of German insurer Allianz, has become the first foreign company to own a stake in China's pension insurance giant Guomin Pension. AGI was allowed to subscribe to newly issued shares representing 2% in the company, and the stake is worth 228 million yuan ($31.40 million), the pension firm said in a statement issued Monday. Guomin Pension, jointly launched by China's largest banks and insurers, was established in 2022 to promote the development...

June 24, 2024
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18Jun

China raises base pensions for retirees by 3%

China's retirees will see a boost in their monthly pensions starting Jan 1, 2024, according to a joint notice from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance. The increase applies to individuals who completed their retirement procedures by the end of 2023 and were previously employed by companies or government bodies. The adjustment represents a roughly 3 percent increase on the average monthly base pension for retirees in 2023. The State Council, China's cabinet, approved...

June 18, 2024
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May 2024
29May

The world’s largest pension fund may be running dry

A population equaling the size of the entire U.S. will retire from China's workforce by 2035, and the country isn't reproducing sufficiently to mend its fraying social safety net Fifty-eight-year-old Li Zhong, a traditional-Chinese-medicine salesman, retires in two years and doesn't fret about his pension. It's his daughter he is worried about. He recently took out a mortgage to help her buy a house in a Shanghai suburb. China's housing bubble burst in 2021, and prices are at their lowest levels...

May 29, 2024
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22May

China’s savings rate hurts model for growing investments — PAG chair

Looking at the Chinese economy, alternative investment firm PAG doesn’t look at the trendiest sectors as investment opportunities. Instead, when the Hong Kong-based manager sees them, it knows “which sectors to avoid,” said Weijian Shan, executive chair. “Let’s say that whatever sector is hot, we typically stay away from because China is a capital-rich country,” he told attendees at the SALT iConnections New York 2024 conference on May 20. Shan described the country’s savings rate as “on a league of its...

May 22, 2024
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06May

China. 1.07 billion people in basic pension scheme

China has been improving its social insurance system to better support development, with the number of participants in the basic pension reaching 1.07 billion by the end of March, a year-on-year increase of 14 million, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said. There were 240 million participants in the unemployment insurance scheme, up 4.49 million, and 290 million participants in the employment injury insurance scheme, up 5.58 million. From January to March, the total income of the basic pension,...

May 6, 2024
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April 2024
25Apr

China’s unique retirement plan: why children still matter when it comes to support in old age

At the end of last year, the number of people in China aged 65 and above reached 217 million, making up 15.4 per cent of the total population. This has led to concerns that with rapid ageing, the existing pension system may fail to keep pace. As a result, elderly people have turned to raising children to look after them in their old age. This is commonly known as yang er fang lao. Here, the Post explains the phenomenon. What is it ? Simply put yang...

April 25, 2024
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15Apr

Why richer, older China needs changes to its social contract

No one likes getting old. The pains and strains of becoming elderly wear on us. The worries about how to ensure we can provide for ourselves in old age looms largest of all, as countries’ birth rates fall Nowhere feels this more acutely than China, where a staggering 300 million peopleminimal or no pensionsmaller families The challenges are multifaceted. The government needs to build out rather than restrict the social safety net of pensions and healthcare for this growing segment of the country’s...

April 15, 2024
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