CHINA: Senior population growing, report says

Report: China's senior population growing BEIJING (UPI), March 1, 2008: China's aging population is affecting the communist nation's economic and social development, a senior government official said Saturday. At the end of 2007, China had an estimated 153 million people aged 60 or over, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported. With more than 1.3 billion people China is the world's most populous nation. Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, at a meeting of the China National Committee on Aging, said China will, among other things, promote the development of services for the aged and take steps to protect the legal rights of the elderly. Hui, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said the nation's rapidly growing senior population has strained pensions and medical spending has increased. © 2008 United Press International.