Is "Retiring in China" About Snatching Up Beds?

Recently, a blog post titled "With a Pension of 20,000 Yuan, They Have Come to China to Retire" has sparked heated discussion online. The article cites the case of a 61-year-old Norwegian nurse who, after a short trip to Xi'an, began considering spending her retirement in China, and that of a 65-year-old British company employee who, after wrapping up his business in China, returned to Suzhou and decided to stay and live there.

The fact that foreign nationals favor retiring in China reflects, from one angle, the substantial rise in China's comprehensive national strength. Particularly in recent years, China's urban and rural infrastructure has become increasingly well-developed, the cost of living has remained stable, cultural and tourism resources are abundant, and society is inclusive and friendly—all of which are relatively well-suited to the needs of older people seeking a quiet life or a sojourn-style retirement. For quite a few foreigners, China is shifting from a destination one "visits once" to a place one can consider "settling down in."

In a situation where domestic demand has not yet been fully met, any dilution or squeezing of public eldercare resources deserves serious attention. The public's concern about public eldercare resources being taken up is not baseless anxiety; on the contrary, it exposes some real pain points in the development of China's eldercare cause. At present, the aging of China's population continues to accelerate, the elderly population is enormous, and the shortcomings in the supply of public resources such as inclusive eldercare beds and medical rehabilitation and nursing care have become prominent; the distribution of eldercare resources between urban and rural areas and across regions is uneven. All of these are the baseline of public well-being that safeguards the retirement lives of ordinary elderly people.

However, we must not one-sidedly equate the arrival of foreign nationals to retire in China with the occupation of public resources; we should also see the new space this opens up for China's service consumption and the development of the silver economy. In fact, China's eldercare service system is one in which inclusive public resources and market-based provision coexist; the vast majority of foreign nationals who come to China to retire choose market-based services and basically do not occupy basic public resources. There is no direct conflict of interest between the two.

From the perspective of industrial development, this phenomenon also has certain positive value. China's elderly population is enormous in scale, and the silver economy is in the ascendant. If foreign retirees come to China to retire with the ability to pay their own way, this will effectively activate the domestic wellness and eldercare market, push the domestic eldercare industry to continuously transform and upgrade, drive the development of upstream and downstream industries such as wellness real estate, senior tourism, rehabilitation equipment, and health management, and push domestic eldercare services to benchmark against international standards—thereby using industrial growth to feed back into the supply of public well-being.

The choice of foreign nationals to retire in China is, in essence, a result of market competition. According to statistics, the global population aged 60 and above has now exceeded 1 billion, and among them the market for cross-border retirement among high-net-worth retirees is growing at an average annual rate of 8%.

As the world's second-largest economy, and against the backdrop of intensifying aging, consumption upgrading and industrial transformation intertwined, China's moderate and conditional opening of retirement visas and residence permits to foreign nationals is a forward-looking choice for addressing domestic structural challenges, and will also be an effective path to enhancing China's international influence.

In a certain sense, foreign nationals "retiring in China" are not here to snatch up beds; rather, they have carried out a stress test in advance for China's silver economy.

In the long run, for China to become a mature international retirement and sojourn destination, there are still many problems to be solved and a long road ahead. The most urgent task is to start from two aspects: handling the livelihood matter of eldercare well, and handling the question of opening up well. We must strictly hold the baseline of public well-being that is basic eldercare, remedy institutional shortcomings in areas such as admission boundaries and service procedures, and—on the basis of continuously expanding the eldercare pie—cultivate distinctive eldercare brands and an international wellness industry, safeguarding the warmth of local people's livelihoods while also demonstrating the bearing of a major country that is open to the world.