Private (Occupational) Pensions in China: A Note on Recent Developments

China, as the most populous country in the world, is ageing rapidly. Against the background of dramatic demographic changes in this century, China’s current pension system is badly structured, and not able to cope with the rapid ageing population. The Chinese government is well aware of this issue, and has been working hard to solve it by initiating a range of structural pension reforms. The most important one, i.e. a multi-pillar system, started in 1997, which was largely influenced by recommendations from the World Bank. In this paper, the focus is on the second pillar of the newly established system.