The Chinese government, which is cash-strapped after imposing a costly zero-Covid policy, is cutting medical benefits for the elderly and also planning to raise the retirement age.
Citing analysts, a report by CNN on Friday (March 31) said the changes are part of a national overhaul mainly intended to cover deficits in public medical insurance funds that have been drained after paying for mass Covid testing, mandatory quarantine, and other pandemic controls over the last three years.
Since January, thousands of elderly people have been protesting against big cuts to the monthly medical benefit payments. The protesters gathered in China's four major cities, demanding that local officials reverse the decisions, reports WION.
Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, a think tank in Washington, said that Chinese pensioners view these latest reforms as yet another broken party promise, "One that could profoundly impact their quality of life" in the face of the country's looming demographic crisis.
As per the CNN report, local governments in China, for nearly three years, bore the brunt of enforcing pandemic controls which resulted in soaring expenditures even as the income from revenue sources such as land sales slumped.
The concerns were sparked after Guangdong province and Dalian city announced last year they would tap medical insurance funds to pay for mass virus testing. This issue was exacerbated after the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) said the money should not be used in this way and local governments should fund testing with their budgets.
The report added that was exactly unclear how much China spent in total maintaining the zero-Covid policy or where that money came from. However, 17 of the total 31 provinces revealed the enormous sums they spent on combating Covid.
The Guangdong province was the biggest spender. Last year, the province spent $10.3 billion (711 billion yuan) on measures such as vaccination, testing and emergency benefits for medical workers, an increase of over 50% from the year before. On the other hand, Zhejiang and Beijing spent 43.5 billion yuan and 30 billion yuan respectively.
George Magnus, an associate at the China Centre at Oxford University, said local governments are running short of money, and in some cases, out of money.
Magnus highlighted that funding the zero-Covid policy was the proximate cause for the crunch, but local finances were falling deteriorating for other reasons as well.
The protests by elderly people have been dubbed the “gray hair movement” by local media. And these protests are indicative of a fundamental issue facing Beijing: How to care for a society when 30% of the population will be 60 or older by 2035.
The wave of protests not limited to the elderly
The recent protests are not only limited to China's elderly. The country's working population is also demonstrating against the government. Last week, teachers in Leping city expressed their dissatisfaction on the issue of the large gap between teachers' salary vis a vis public servants, the news agency ANI reported on Tuesday.
And after the government abruptly ended the zero-Covid policy, the vast system for Covid surveillance and testing collapsed, resulting in the sudden unemployment of various workers- who are now demanding wages and jobs.
Last year, China saw protests by many depositors who lost their savings with small local banks and other institutions.
