China improves social security for vulnerable groups in 2021-2025

China

China improves social security for vulnerable groups in 2021-2025

2025-10-10 15:16 Last Updated At：10-11 00:57

China has significantly strengthened the social security system for its people, particularly vulnerable groups, including the impoverished, disabled, elderly and children in difficulty, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), said the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Friday.

At a press conference in Beijing on major achievements made during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, officials with the ministry said China has established a multi-tiered social assistance system that covers more people in need.

So far in the 2021-2025 period, subsistence allowance standards for urban and rural areas have increased by 19.6 percent and 21.3 percent respectively, benefiting 39.4 million low-income individuals, as well as 4.82 million others who have no ability to work, no source of livelihood, and no obligated supporters.

Lu Zhiyuan, Minister of Civil Affairs, told the press that China has kept improving its elderly care service system which meets its national conditions.

"In terms of elderly care services, China has fully established a basic elderly care service system and completed the top-level design for the reform and development of elderly care services. A unique elderly care service system tailored to the national conditions is being rapidly constructed, and the supply structure has kept improving. By the end of 2024, there were 406,000 elderly care institutions and facilities nationwide, with the proportion of nursing beds increasing from 48 percent in 2020 to 65.7 percent at present," said the minister.

During the five-year period, China has also accelerated the construction of its care and support service system for severely disabled people, and the national average standards of living subsidies for disabled people in difficulty and nursing subsidies for severely disabled people increased by 31.9 percent and 22.5 percent respectively. Regarding the protection of children in difficult circumstances, China has included de facto orphaned children, left-behind children, and migrant children into the scope of national protection and care services, and a comprehensive protection and care system covering all types of children in difficult circumstances has been initially established.

The basic living security standards for orphans in centralized care, orphans living in the community, and de facto orphaned children have increased by 26 percent, 32 percent and 31 percent, respectively, compared to 2020.

ROK president calls for learning lesson from anti-aggression history

The Republic of Korea (ROK) and China should cherish the historical experience of jointly resisting aggression and continue to work together for a prosperous future, said ROK President Lee Jae Myung.

At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Lee will pay a state visit to China from Jan 4 to 7. It will be Lee's first visit to China since he took office last year.

In an interview with China Media Group (CMG) in Seoul on Wednesday, Lee said that humanity must learn from the past to prevent the tragedy of war from repeating itself.

"While pursuing their own national interests to the fullest extent, countries must not harm the national interests of others, but should coexist peacefully. The act of invading other countries and massacring their people for one's own benefit must never be repeated. History of humanity often repeats itself, therefore we must learn from the past. In this regard, I believe the historical experience of ROK and China in resisting aggression and fighting together is invaluable. Of course, while historical experience is important, we cannot remain stuck in the past. For a better future for the people of both countries, we need to continuously explore possibilities for working together towards the future," said the president.