In the past, parents could count on their children for care in their twilight years under Chinese traditions of filial piety. “The idea that children should take care of their ageing parents is an old logic spanning thousands of years,” explained Li. “As society develops, this is changing.”To tackle the country’s looming ageing crisis, the Chinese government is trialling a number of policies, including preferential tax policies for elderly care service providers. “Whether or not China’s elderly care industry can satisfy the needs of (China’s) rapidly ageing populace depends on who is paying for it,” says Chen Youhua, a professor at Nanjing University who has studied China’s elderly care industry. For China’s ageing elite, many of whom already live in the major cities, their children may be living overseas or simply too busy building their own high-powered careers to look after relatives.

Source: The Express Tribune January 22, 2019 13:06 UTC