On the occasion of celebrating the first national day of the elderly in China, one important commitment to make is to let the elderly live free of violence and abuse. This is a commitment to be made by the governments, the communities and every individual member of the society. No violence and abuse against the elderly should be tolerated in any circumstances. 

October was the month when China celebrated two important dates meant to highlight its respect for the elderly—the traditional Chongyang Festival and the International Day of Older Persons. November and the months to come should be the time to remind society of responding better to China’s increasingly old population, and ensuring that ageing becomes a celebration for both old and young people.

Today, we celebrate the International Day of Older Persons under the theme, “The Future We Want: What Older Persons Are Saying”. Indeed, with 841 million older persons in the world in 2013, representing almost 12 per cent of the world’s population, we can no longer afford not to listen to what they are saying.

In order to enhance the capacity on population strategy planning, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the top decision-making entity in the Chinese government, organized a national workshop to train senior government officials on population strategy and planning from 25-26 June in Changsha. Around 120 senior officials from 31 provincial development and reform commissions in charge of population and development planning attended this training.

BEIJING, 7 April 2012 – "Good health adds life to years". This is the theme of this year's World Health Day, commemorated every year on 7 April, the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO). The Ministry of Health of China, together with China National Committee on Ageing, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and WHO marked World Health Day 2012 with a campaign to promote healthy ageing, as the proportion of older people continues to grow worldwide.

June 19, Hangzhou---With support from UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund in China and UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) organized the China International Seminar on the 2010 Round of Census in Hangzhou from 19-22 June 2013.