Current retirement age:

For men: 60 (men); 55 (as to some special jobs that place extra stress on people over a long period of time)

For women: 55; 45 (as to some special jobs that place extra stress on people over a long period of time)

Portion of China's population aged 60 and older:

13.3 percent in 2010

10.3 percent in 2000 (statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics).

Some 123 million Chinese, or about 9.1 percent of the nation's population, were aged over 65 by the end of 2011, and the ratio of working-aged Chinese to the country's seniors will drop from 10:1 in 2000 to 2.8:1 in 2050, according to data released by the Health Aging Symposium in May 2012.

Pension accounts deficit:

1.7 trillion yuan (US$269.5 billion) at the end of 2010 (from the statistics of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which, according to a World Bank report, will amount to 9.15 trillion yuan before 2075 if the current system continues.

Current pension system:

Chinese people currently save retirement payments in two accounts: the government and employers jointly contribute to a pay-as-you-go "communal pension account," while an "individual retirement account" takes 8 percent of workers' monthly salaries.

But the reality is that many individual accounts are running on empty because their funds have been used by the communal pension account to pay for current needs of the retired, Shanghai-based Dongfang Daily reported yesterday.

Experts have described the situation as "using the future's money to fill current holes." A World Bank report said the pension deficit would rise to 9.15 trillion yuan before 2075 if the current system continues.

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