Chinese cities cutting medical benefits for seniors due to cash shortage

In China, thousands of elderly people have been taking to the streets since January to protest big cuts to monthly medical benefit payments. They've gathered in four major cities across the country, demanding local officials reverse the decisions. The changes are part of a national overhaul mainly intended to cover deficits in public medical insurance funds, according to analysts, which have been drained after paying for mass testing, mandatory quarantine and other pandemic controls over the past three years. "Chinese pensioners view these latest reforms as yet another broken party promise, one that could profoundly impact their quality of life in the face of China's looming demographic crisis," said Craig Singleton, senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The demonstrations, dubbed by Chinese media as a "grey hair movement," are another rare rebuke for authorities after widespread protests gripped the country in November against Covid lockdowns.The anger could further undermine trust in the Communist Party already damaged by Covid lockdowns, banking scandals and a real estate crisis. The issue was exacerbated when, shortly after, the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) said the money shouldn't be used in this way and that local governments should fund the testing with their own budgets.

It's unclear exactly how much China has spent in total on maintaining its strict zero-Covid policy, or where that money came from. But at least 17 of the country's 31 provinces have revealed the enormous sums they've spent on fighting the pandemic.Guangdong, the richest province in China, was the biggest spender. It spent 711 billion yuan (USD 10.3 billion) in 2022 on measures such as vaccination, testing and emergency benefits for medical workers, an increase of more than 50 per cent from the year before.Zhejiang and Beijing spent 43.5 billion yuan and 30 billion yuan respectively.