The Evolution of China’s Rural Old-Age Security System: A Historical Perspective

Abstract

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolution and effectiveness of China’s rural old-age security system through a combination of literature review, historical analysis, and comparative analysis. It critically examines how the longstanding urban-rural dual structure (urban-rural fragmentation and imbalance) has led to systemic bias, with rural regions consistently underprioritized in the development of elderly care services. From the perspective of the supply entity, the construction of the rural old-age security system in China has gone through five stages. The traditional old-age system is the most fundamental stage. The responsibility for elderly care is entirely borne by the family, relying on land security and intergenerational support. The people's commune support system established an initial welfare guarantee mechanism covering specific disadvantaged groups. The pension insurance system is the first to introduce the concept of social insurance, attempting to develop a mechanism where individual responsibilities are shared with those of the collective and the state. It is a crucial step for rural old-age security towards modernization and institutionalization. The new rural social endowment insurance system (New Rural Pension Insurance) has, for the first time, clearly defined the government's direct fiscal responsibility in rural old-age security (universal basic pension), achieving full coverage of the system. And the old-age security system for coordinating urban and rural development. The institutional division between urban and rural areas has been broken, and a unified framework of the Urban and Rural Resident Pension Insurance system has been established. The study found that there are still some shortcomings in China's rural old-age security at present, such as the prominent contradiction of supply and demand imbalance. There is a significant mismatch between the products, services, and financial support that the current rural elderly care security system can provide and the increasingly growing and diversified elderly care demands of rural residents. In the coming period, China's rural old-age security system needs to adhere to the path of continuous improvement and innovation. Thus, while meeting the elderly care needs in rural areas, it promotes the development of rural productive forces, narrows the income gap between urban and rural residents, and moves towards common prosperity.