Old age care concerns and state–society relations in China: public anxiety and state paternalism

Abstract

Using data from a multiyear national survey, this study examines people's level of concern about care in old age and its temporal change. Our results indicate a rapidly increasing level of anxiety about old age care for people of various age groups, socio-economic status and regions. Our analysis also reveals that a higher proportion of urban residents are concerned about old age care than rural residents in recent years. The concerns have grown amid rapid economic growth and serious government efforts to broaden social insurance coverage. Our data suggest a growing demand for more government involvement in providing for retirement and old age care and such a demand for state paternalism will likely help reshape state–society relations in the future.

Keywords:

• China
• ageing
• old age care
• retirement pension
• ageing anxiety
• state paternalism
• state–society relations

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Horizon Research Consultancy for allowing us to use data from the Residents’ Life Quality Index Survey. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Confucius Institute and the Social Sciences Division of the University of Chicago. The authors also thank Jingsheng Zhu and Jiaqiang Chen for their comments on an early version of this article.

Notes

1. Tong Dahuan, ‘China, please walk slowly’ (Zhongguo, qingni manxie zou), 24 July 2011, available at http://blog.qq.com/qzone/622007901/1311574820.htm [Accessed 20 December 2011]. On the crash, see Jamil Anderlini, ‘China Failed to Heed Rail Safety Warnings,’ Financial Times, 26 July 2011, available at http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/bbd56722-b78c-11e0-b95d-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1fx6mvAqO [Accessed 20 December 2011].

2. Yan Lianke, http://weibo.com/2056049087, 18 August 2011 [Accessed 20 December 2011].

3. Andrew Jacobs, ‘Harassment and Evictions Bedevil Even China's Well-Off,’ New York Times, 27 October 2011, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/world/asia/harassment-and-house-evictions-bedevil-even-chinas-well-off.html [Accessed 20 December 2011].

4. ‘The 12th five-year plan on the development of elderly care in China’ (Zhongguo laoling shiye fazhan shi'erwu guihua), 17 September 2011, available at http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2011-09/23/content_1954782.htm [Accessed 20 December 2011].

5. See Huang and Yang (2003) for a detailed analysis of the evolution of the birth control policy and its implementation in China. We recognize that the population planning policy is only one of many factors that have caused China's demographic transition, as described by Hussain (2002) and Greenhalgh and Winckler (2005).

6. We note that no regions where the ethnic minorities are concentrated are included, although these minority regions only account for a small proportion of the national population.

7. The original Chinese questions are ‘’ and ‘’

8. In 2007, the ‘so-so’ was excluded as a possible response category.

9. The Pearson correlations between the two variables (with three responses) for concerns about old age care are 0.74, 0.81 and 0.72, respectively, for 2006, 2008 and 2010.

10. Wei Mingyan, ‘The Civil Affairs Ministry: 3 million beds to be added for elderly care in 5 years, doubling the current number’ (Minzhengbu: wunian ni zen yanglao chuangwei 300 wan zhang, bi muqian fanyifan), New Capital Newspaper (xinjingbao), 9 December 2011, available at http://news.sohu.com/20111209/n328402099.shtml [Accessed 20 December 2011].

11. Ibid.