SHENYANG, China—Here in the northeast rust belt, ailing industries are increasingly less able to pay into plans for retiring workers, as a slowing economy hastens a pension crisis. “It used to be the system took care of you,” said Zhao Zhonghao, a railway engineer in Shenyang who began his career shoveling coal. The 54-year-old is revising his retirement dream of painting, traveling and reading the classics, concerned his pension will be slashed. “I have to be prepared for that,” he said. ...
Faltering Chinese industries are leaving companies unable to pay into plans for workers who are retiring, creating a pension crisis. China’s low retirement age and its 35-year one child policy setting the stage for a demographic time bomb; while there are currently seven workers for every person over 65 in China, that will fall to two workers by 2050, according to the UN. Local governments have given companies leeway on pension payments, despite the fact that China’s Academy of Social Sciences think tank has predicted that the pension surplus will turn into a deficit by 2023, reaching $118tn by 2050.