By EWAN PALMER : International Business Times, August 5, 2013 1:04 PM GMT
Chinese authorities have said they are considering lifting their controversial one-child policy by the end of 2015, according to reports.
State news agency Xinhua has said the country will look to relax the law which has been in place since 1978 to allow couples to have a second child if either parent is the only child by the end of the year. Continue reading
Wall Street Journal/May 30, 2013. By TOM ORLIK
High Rates of Poverty, Disability and Mental Illness Haunt Elderly, Pose Growing Economic Challenge
![[image]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WO-AN968_CELDER_G_20130530191105.jpg)
An elderly man sits in his house in Yuangudui village, in China’s Gansu province.
BEIJING—China’s elderly are poor, sick and depressed in alarming numbers, according to the first large-scale survey of those over 60, an immense challenge for Beijing and one of the greatest long-term vulnerabilities of the Chinese economy.
The survey of living conditions for China’s 185 million elderly paints a bleak picture that defies the efforts of the government to build what it calls a “harmonious society,” one dedicated to human welfare rather than simply economic growth. Of the generation that built China’s economic boom, 22.9%—or 42.4 million—live in poverty with consumption of less than 3,200 yuan a year ($522).
The Telegraph/ 16 January 2013
Methuselah himself might have struggled to win a place at one of Beijing’s most popular old people’s homes: the waiting list is currently 100 years long.
Such is the shortage of elderly care in China’s major cities that there are more than 10,000 applicants waiting for the 1,100 beds on offer in the capital’s No. 1 Social Welfare Home, according to the Beijing Evening News. Continue reading
Huffington Post/28 December 2012
BEIJING — Visit your parents. That’s an order.
So says China, whose national legislature on Friday amended its law on the elderly to require that adult children visit their aged parents “often” – or risk being sued by them. Continue reading
