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China frets over pensions for greying population
Reuters - USA

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's rapidly growing elderly population could surge as high as 430 million by 2051, when almost one in three citizens will be 60 or over, posing a grave challenge for already strained state social welfare and pension systems, Xinhua news agency said on Friday.

The aging population was now growing by 3 million a year from the current 143 million, it said.

"China is facing surging demand from the elderly population in terms of social welfare and medical services," Li Bengong, an official with the China National Committee on Aging, was quoted as saying.

"Welfare services can not match the rise in demand."

People retiring in China today do not enjoy the cradle-to-grave welfare provided to previous generations which has been replaced with a mash-mash of government and corporate pension plans experts say are riddled with problems.