{"id":382539,"date":"2026-03-13T04:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T04:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/382539\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T04:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T04:33:10","slug":"chinas-rural-pensions-in-focus-as-lawmakers-fight-for-farmers-fair-share-amid-income-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/382539\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s rural pensions in focus as lawmakers fight for farmers\u2019 fair share amid income gap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some Chinese lawmakers and advisers are pushing to secure higher pensions for elderly farmers, underscoring the persistent income disparity between the country\u2019s urban and rural residents.<\/p>\n

The latest government work report<\/a>, approved on Thursday, confirmed a 20-yuan (US$2.91) monthly increase to basic pension payments for a third consecutive year, bringing the national minimum to 163 yuan. However, some deputies from China\u2019s top legislature contend that this level is inadequate.<\/p>\n

\u201cA pension of just over 100 yuan each month is really, really difficult\u201d to live on, said Bi Lixia, a deputy of the National People\u2019s Congress (NPC), China\u2019s top legislature, who urged the government to raise the monthly minimum to 400 yuan for rural residents aged 70 or older.<\/p>\n

Another deputy, Lei Maoduan, called for the basic pension for elderly farmers to be raised to 500 yuan over the next three years. He argued that, while farmers\u2019 contributions to the nation\u2019s social security scheme may be relatively small, they have made significant contributions to society through their labour and agricultural production.<\/p>\n

The appeals on the sidelines of the \u201ctwo sessions\u201d<\/a> \u2013 the annual meetings of the NPC and the Chinese People\u2019s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the nation\u2019s top political advisory body \u2013 come as the country grapples with persistent rural-urban income inequality.
\n<\/p>\n

05:41<\/p>\n

Why China’s elderly farmers can’t afford to retire<\/p>\n

Why China’s elderly farmers can’t afford to retire<\/p>\n

While Beijing sees rural spending as a means to help drive China\u2019s shift towards a consumption-led growth model, many in the countryside struggle to afford basic living costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some Chinese lawmakers and advisers are pushing to secure higher pensions for elderly farmers, underscoring the persistent income…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[177],"tags":[1793,175482,79,381,169278,169807,18,19,17,175481,9404,117691,169806,2090,234,235,175485,175486,8748,175484,175483],"class_list":["post-382539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-beijing","tag-bi-lixia","tag-business","tag-china","tag-chinese-peoples-political-consultative-conference","tag-cppcc","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lei-maoduan","tag-ministry-of-human-resources-and-social-security","tag-national-peoples-congress","tag-npc","tag-pensions","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-rural-urban-income-inequality","tag-social-security-scheme","tag-urban","tag-zhang-xuewu","tag-zhou-shihong"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116220002600211636","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}