Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 9, 2022

On the “Chinese Approach” to Actively Addressing Population Ageing

(Abstract)

Hu Zhan, Peng Xizhe and Wu Yushao

The course of population ageing in China has distinctive features due to the country’s fundamental national conditions, development path, and mode of governance; thus an approach with Chinese characteristics that actively addresses this issue is urgently needed. This Chinese approach is built on solid foundations, comprising the paradigmatic resource of a joint force of governance with ‘one core and multiple components’; the structural resource of a three-component ‘state-family-society’ governance arrangement; the national endowment of being a vast nation with rich cultural resources; and the late-comer advantage conferred by the scientific and technological innovations of our changing times. It is desirable to cultivate a positive attitude toward ageing by clarifying the relationship between the national strategy of actively responding to the ageing of the population and the strategy of population development. Such an attitude will be instrumental in improving the environment for implementing the national strategies and using China’s strong points in the governance of an ageing society to establish a holistic governance framework in which individuals, families, communities, the state, and the world are integrated, as the systemic Chinese approach for actively responding to population ageing is ceaselessly refined.