China is joining the global push towards raising the retirement age. The new thresholds approved by legislators last week, however, continue to grasp at a utopian idea of ageing that is not compatible with the shrinking workforce in the People's Republic.

Chinese netizens have voiced anxiety over the government's recent announcement that it plans to introduce new retirement ages. Starting in 2025, China will gradually raise the ages of statutory retirement for the first time since they were established in the 1950s,

China announced plans to gradually raise retirement ages by up to five years by 2040, starting from January In China’s three northeastern rust-belt provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, where ageing rates have been among the nation’s highest,