Abstract
China’s elderly population (60+) is projected to exceed 440 million by 2050. With the world’s largest population of older citizens, the country, however, has yet developed a systematic approach to address its pressing need for long-term care. During the past decade, Chinese governments, at both central and local levels, have aggressively increased their efforts to experiment with various models to finance and deliver long-term care service, with a special focus on including more non-governmental resources such as proprietary corporations and small businesses. Such aggressive experiments were at times poorly designed and executed, and without a clear and well-articulated mission. This paper offers a critique of the current fragmented and investor-oriented approach and discusses the need for a more balanced approach by including more community-based resources and the nonprofit sector and developing a financing base through some form of social insurance.