China’s economic-focused “two sessions” have set a target of raising the minimum pension fee for urban and rural residents by 20 yuan (about $2.8) to 123 yuan (about $17) per month. The move drew widespread concerns over the vast disparity in pension amounts between the average Chinese citizen and party officials.
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) rubber-stamped “two sessions” lasted for a week and finally concluded on March 11. In the government’s work report, Premier of State Council Li Qiang proposed on March 5 raising the monthly minimum standard of basic pensions for urban and rural residents by 20 yuan (about $2.80) as part of a national strategy to cope with the aging population.
China has 170 million elderly individuals who receive pension insurance for urban and rural residents.
Later that day, Huang Shouhong, head of the government work report drafting team and director of the Research Office of the State Council, explained at a press conference that “this is equivalent to an increase of 19.4 percent” from the minimum basic pension standard for urban and rural residents in China was originally only 103 yuan (about $14.30) per month, a “sizeable upward adjustment.”
Subsequently, Chinese official media hyped the governmental report with the alarming headline “Urban and Rural Residents’ Pension to be Increased Significantly.”
The so-called pensions spike has sparked criticism.
“[The CCP’s] raising the basic pension by 20 yuan a month is more of a humiliation than a favor to the grassroots farmers!” Independent commentator Cai Shenkun commented on March 9 on the social media platform X.
Mr. Cai indicated that the Chinese communist government spends trillions of yuan annually on social stability maintenance and over 1.6 trillion yuan (about $223 billion) on military spending this year alone.
“For the 170 million low-income earners, the monthly pension is only raised by 20 yuan. How can such miserliness be justified?” He questioned.
CCP’s Three Types of Pensions System
There are three types of pension systems in China. The civil service system has the highest pension amount, followed by the enterprise employee system and the system for urban and rural residents, including farmers. The so-called basic pension refers to the last.An official notice issued by the Social Insurance Business Center of Yingtan City of eastern Jiangxi Province last year provided a glimpse of the difference.
The notice listed three types of pension payments for retirees: 69.09 million yuan (about $9.62 million) for 13,600 civil servants, 178.85 million yuan (about $24.91 million) for 75,500 enterprise retirees, and 28.54 million yuan (about $3.97 million) for 137,800 urban and rural residence insurance retirees.
In calculation, civil servants’ retirees’ pensions amount to 5,080 yuan ($708) per capita per month, more than twice that of enterprise retirees, 2,368 yuan ($330), and four-fold that of urban and rural residence insurance retirees of 207 yuan ($29).
A Chinese national residing in New York who preferred to only use his surname, Zhang, told The Epoch Times that in the early 1990s, when he was in charge of human resources at a company in Beijing, an official at a training session on pensions at the Bureau of Labor and Employment told him that China’s national pension system means that “you can be guaranteed to live with Wotou (a cheap northern steamed corn bread for the poor) and Chinese pickles after retirement. If you want to eat better, you must have some savings. If you still want to eat meat, you must buy commercial pension insurance.”
According to Mr. Zhang, decades later, many Chinese cannot meet their basic needs, relying solely on a monthly pension of a few hundred yuan.
“Even hooligans wouldn’t be so shameless,” he said, expressing his anger at Xi’s tout that China had achieved “moderate prosperity.”
Powerful Interest Group at the Top of the Pyramid
Beyond the three categories mentioned above, retirement benefits for senior CCP officials—China’s privileged class—are exceptional.In September last year, an image circulated on social media allegedly showing the pension details of Zheng Tuobin, the former Minister of Economy and Trade, totaling 49,249.50 yuan ($6,859) monthly.
It included his monthly severance pay of 10,079 yuan ($1,404), living allowance of 25,198 yuan ($3,509), self-employment expenses of 3,500 yuan ($487), severance allowance of 9,810 yuan ($1,366) and six other sporadic subsidies, such as book and newspaper expenses, cleaning expenses, city subsidies, telephone allowances, and shuttle subsidies.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify the image.
Born in 1924, Mr. Zheng served on the 12th and 13th Central Committees, was Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation in 1985, and retired in 1992.
The paycheck alone is not enough to embody the rights of the CCP privileged class; they’re also granted countless housing, transportation, and health care benefits, even covering their families and relatives.
An article published on China News on May 2, 2015, leaked treatment criteria for retired senior officials, arousing public concern.
As per the criteria, the treatment of retired provincial and ministerial-level cadres includes providing them with a full-time driver, security guard, service worker, and additional medical caregivers for poor health (for those over 75 years old). They are entitled to four annual domestic trips, each lasting three weeks, with unlimited family members. For air travel, they are allowed two to four seats first or business class; for train travel, they are provided with a soft sleeper; and for road travel, they are equipped with three sedans or two mini-coaches. The accommodation cost for four-star or five-star hotels, with meals and beverages included, can be fully reimbursed.
In addition to the above benefits, central-level retired cadres are entitled to a subsidy for purchasing a home based on a standard floor area of 220 square meters (2,400 square feet) and special medical services.
The article pointed out that the average annual benefits and allowances (excluding pension) for each person at the rank of full provincial minister exceeded 1.12 million yuan (about $160,000). Retired deputy provincial ministers spent nearly 940,000 yuan (about $130,000).
There are 3,742 retired provincial ministerial cadres and 27,435 vice-provincial ministerial cadres in China. These former officials live in scenic areas such as Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. In Guangdong Province alone, as much as 112.3 million yuan ($15.64 million) is paid annually for sedan chair rides for retired officials at the vice-provincial ministerial level, according to the article.
Dong Xiang ceased publication in November 2017 due to its critical stance towards the CCP.
According to publication, after Jiang moved out of Zhongnanhai, where CCP’s core administerial power is located, he lived at the state-level guesthouses with extraordinary daily expenses. For instance, Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, the Central Military Commission’s Guest House on Yuquanshan Mountain, the Xijiao Guesthouse in Shanghai, the Grand Mansion, and Taihu Lake in Suzhou.
Armed guards protected the special train that Jiang used along the route, and all passenger trains had to stop and give way.
Further, the article also revealed that Jiang could enjoy two Air China jets, two military jets, and three special trains with seven compartments at his will. In addition, three groups of medical experts from the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital in Beijing, two groups from the East China Hospital in Shanghai, and one group from the General Hospital of the Guangzhou Military Region were available at his disposal.
In Western democracies, the state benefits of retired officials are not materially different from those of the general public. However, in China, the state benefits of retired senior CCP officials are vastly distinct as the dictatorship’s privileged class can squander the state treasury as freely as if it were from their own pockets.
