China has strengthened social protections for people with disabilities during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), with 10.5 million now covered by the subsistence allowance program.
Cheng Kai, chairman of the China Disabled Persons' Federation, reported comprehensive policy advances at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
"The reformed social assistance system has incorporated 10.5 million persons with disabilities into the subsistence allowance program. The government has also expanded eligibility for extreme poverty assistance programs and established new criteria to identify near-poor families and those facing hardship due to unexpected expenses, extending coverage to over two million additional persons with disabilities. Currently, 27.489 million persons with disabilities are covered by basic old-age pension for rural and non-working urban residents, with 9.81 million receiving insurance subsidies," Cheng said.
"All provincial-level regions have established dynamic adjustment mechanisms for the two key disability subsidy programs. Under the ongoing Sunshine Homeland Initiative, over 10,000 care institutions nationwide have provided residential services to 2.668 million disabled persons. These measures have significantly strengthened the social safety net for people with disabilities," Cheng said.
Poverty prevention efforts have brought 991,000 at-risk disabled households into national monitoring systems, effectively preventing large-scale relapse into poverty, Cheng noted.
China expands social safety net for population with disabilities during 14th Five-Year Plan period
Japanese people held a rally in Shibuya, Tokyo, on Saturday to oppose Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's erroneous remarks about China's Taiwan region and attempts to revive militarism.
At a Diet meeting in early November 2025, Takaichi claimed that the Chinese central authorities' "use of force on Taiwan" could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan and implied the possibility of armed intervention in the Taiwan Strait, which drew strong criticism worldwide.
At the rally, protesters chanted slogans of "Oppose remarks on advocating 'Taiwan emergency' and "Oppose remarks on possessing nuclear weapons."
"To lead Japan towards nuclear armament, [the Takaichi administration] came up with the so-called rhetoric on 'Taiwan emergency.' It is advancing the war under such context. They aim to move toward war step by step by destroying Japan's Constitution and abolishing the Three Non-Nuclear Principles. Therefore, we must strive to prevent war before it happens," said a protester.
At the year end of 2025, Takaichi approved a record 782 billion U.S. dollars budget for the next fiscal year, including the largest defense budget on record.
Earlier in December 2025, the Japanese parliament passed a 118 billion U.S. dollar supplementary budget to fund a new stimulus package, including over 10 billion U.S. dollars for security and diplomacy.
"I think every Japanese is clearly aware that Takaichi's government is a right-wing regime in nature. The Takaichi administration has walked on the path -- bringing defense-related spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product within fiscal 2025 by a supplementary budget. From the perspective of this thoroughly militarized system and approach, I feel a strong sense of crisis," said another protester.
For decades, Japan capped its annual defense budget at around 1 percent of GDP, roughly 5 trillion yen, reflecting its postwar pacifist stance under the war-renouncing Constitution. Since fiscal 2023, Japan's annual defense budget has successively exceeded 6 trillion yen, 7 trillion yen, 8 trillion yen, and 9 trillion yen.
Japanese protest against Takaichi's erroneous remarks on China's Taiwan
Japanese protest against Takaichi's erroneous remarks on China's Taiwan
