The Chinese government on Friday approved a plan to raise the country’s statutory retirement age, currently among the lowest in the world, in a long-awaited but broadly unpopular effort to address the challenge of its rapidly aging population.

中国政府周五批准了一项提高法定退休年龄的计划，这是一项期待已久却不受欢迎的举措，旨在应对人口快速老龄化的挑战。该国当前的法定退休年龄位居全球最低之列。

This is the first time China has raised its retirement age since the 1950s. It will be phased in gradually, starting on Jan. 1, 2025. The retirement age for men, previously 60, will increase in increments of several months before finally reaching 63 by 2040. The retirement age for women in white-collar jobs, previously 55, will rise to 58. Women in blue-collar jobs, who previously could retire at 50, will have to work until 55.

这是中国自上世纪五十年代以来首次提高退休年龄，将从2025年1月1日开始分阶段提高退休年龄。男性退休年龄此前为60岁，明年起将以几个月为单位递增，最终在2040年达到63岁。白领女性（干部岗位）的退休年龄此前为55岁，将提高至58岁。蓝领女性（工人岗位）此前可在50岁退休，未来将不得不工作到55岁。

The decision would “maintain the momentum and vitality of economic and social development,” Wang Xiaoping, China’s Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, said at a news conference.

中国人力资源社会保障部部长王晓萍在新闻发布会上表示，这一决定将“保持经济社会发展的动力和活力”。

Policymakers and experts have for decades been calling for a change to the retirement age, noting that the previous rules dated from a time when life expectancy in China was much shorter, and fertility rates higher. They warned that maintaining the status quo would severely strain the country’s work force and pension funds, with large numbers of older Chinese retiring but fewer young people replacing them.

几十年来，政策制定者和专家们一直呼吁改变退休年龄，并指出此前的规定是在中国人的预期寿命短得多，且生育率较高的时代制定的。他们警告，维持此前退休年龄的规定将严重影响中国的劳动力和养老金，因为大量老年人退休，而接替他们的年轻人却越来越少。

China’s working-age population has been falling since 2012, according to official statistics, with an average annual decrease of more than 3 million people. Last year, China had 297 million people over 60 years old, or about 21 percent of its population.

据官方统计数据，自2012年以来，中国劳动年龄人口持续下降，平均每年减少300万人以上。去年，中国60岁以上人口为2.97亿，约占总人口的21%。

But the proposal faced broad opposition, from older workers as well as from younger ones, who worried that an expanded work force would mean even tougher competition for jobs. China also lacks a strong social safety net, and age discrimination by employers is common, leaving many blue-collar workers to worry that they would be left without work but unable to draw on pensions.

但延迟退休年龄的提议遭到了广泛反对，包括年长和年轻的劳动者，他们担心劳动力队伍扩大意味着就业竞争变得更加激烈。中国还缺乏强大的社会保障体系，雇主普遍存在年龄歧视，这让许多蓝领劳动者担心自己会失业，但又无法领取养老金。

In a sign of how sensitive the issue was, the government has promised before to raise the retirement age, only to backpedal in the face of public outcry.

政府此前曾承诺提高退休年龄，但面对公众的强烈抗议又撤回了这一承诺。该问题的敏感性由此可见一斑。

In some ways, now is a particularly bad time for the government to follow through. China’s economy is still struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Youth unemployment remains high. Local governments, which administer pensions and other government benefits, have already cut back on payouts in recent years — at times setting off protests.

从某种程度上来说，现在延迟退休年龄对政府来说是一个很糟糕的时机。中国经济仍在举步维艰地试图从疫情中恢复。青年失业率仍然很高。负责管理养老金和其他政府福利的地方政府近年来已经削减了养老金支出——有时甚至引发了抗议。

But the government most likely realized it had no more time to delay, said Alfred Wu, a professor of public policy at the National University of Singapore, who noted that he was surprised by the speed with which the government had ultimately made its move. (The legislature had announced earlier this week that it was reviewing a draft law, and there was no public comment period as is common for many laws.)

但新加坡国立大学公共政策学教授吴木銮表示，政府很可能意识到已经没有时间可以拖延了。他指出，政府最终采取行动的速度令他感到惊讶。（立法机构本周早些时候宣布正在审查一项法律草案，该草案没有像很多法案一样设置公众意见征询期。）

“I think China has lost a lot of golden opportunities” to make the decision more palatable to the public, Professor Wu said. “Maybe another way is just to release it. Let people accept it, and they move forward.”

“我认为中国已经失去了很多让公众更容易接受这一决定的黄金机会，”吴教授说。“也许另一种方式就是直接公布决定。让人们接受它，然后就这样了。”

Acceptance did not seem to be the initial public reaction.

接受看起来并不是公众的第一反应。

On Chinese social media, where several hashtags about the decision led the trending topics, users complained that they would have to wait even longer to receive benefits that they decried as too low anyway.

在中国的社交媒体上，有关这一决定的几个标签成为热门话题，网友抱怨，他们不得不等待更长的时间才能领取他们认为本来就太低的养老金。

Others worried that the pension funds would be even more depleted by the time they finally got to retire. The government-backed Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has previously projected that China’s pension funds would run out of money by 2035.

还有人担心，到他们最终退休时，养老金将面临枯竭。由政府支持的中国社会科学院曾预测，中国的养老基金将在2035年耗尽。

The decision announced Friday will also lengthen the time people must pay into pension funds before becoming eligible to receive a monthly pension, to 20 years from 15.

周五宣布的决定还将延长人们在有资格每月领取养老金之前必须向养老基金缴费的时间，从15年延长至20年。

In an apparent effort to ease people’s concerns, the plan included what it described as a flexible option for people to retire up to three years earlier — that is, at the current retirement age — if they had fulfilled the 20-year contribution requirement.

显然为了缓解人们的担忧，该计划还包括一个所谓的弹性选择，即如果人们达到了20年的缴费要求，他们可以提前最多三年退休，也就是在目前的退休年龄退休。

“The decision reflects respect for individual wishes. It does not force everyone to reach the new statutory retirement age,” Xinhua, the official news agency, quoted a professor at Zhejiang University, Jin Weigang, as saying.

“决定体现了对个人意愿的尊重，不强制要求每个人必须达到新的法定退休年龄才能退休，”官方通讯社新华社援引浙江大学教授金维刚的话说。

The raising of the retirement age by three years for most workers was less than the five years many had expected.

大多数工人的退休年龄推迟了三年，少于许多人预期的五年。

The government also promised to improve the system for paid annual leave, fight age discrimination and offer earlier retirement for workers in physically demanding jobs.

政府还承诺完善带薪年假制度，防范治理年龄歧视，并为从事体力要求高的职业的工人提供提前退休的机会。

And it said it would work to establish universal child care — another step that could be crucial for ensuring that the delayed retirement age does not inadvertently worsen the population aging problem, by discouraging people from having children. Currently, many retirees take primary responsibility for raising their grandchildren.

政府还表示将努力建立普惠托育服务——这对于确保延迟退休年龄不会因导致人们不愿生育，从而无意中加剧人口老龄化的问题至关重要。目前，许多退休人员承担着抚养孙辈的主要责任。

Besides those reassurances, the government also had another tool to ensure that public backlash did not spiral out of control: censorship.

除了这些保证之外，政府还有另一个工具来确保公众的反弹不会失控：审查。

On Chinese social media, major state media outlets controlled which comments on their posts about the news could be seen. “Got it,” said one of the top comments under a post by the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece.

在中国的社交媒体上，主要的官方媒体控制着相关新闻的评论区。共产党喉舌《人民日报》的一篇帖子下的热门评论之一是：“了解。”