The idea, though, is deeply unpopular. The government has yet to release details of its plan, but older workers have already decried being cheated of their promised timelines, while young people worry that competition for jobs, already fierce, will intensify.
And workers with blue-collar or physically demanding jobs like Meng's, who still make up the majority of China's labor force, say they'll be worn down, left unemployed or both.
The announcement was made during the annual meeting of the national legislature, and afterward retirement-related topics trended for days on Chinese social media, racking up hundreds of millions of views and critical comments.
Around the world, raising the retirement age has emerged as one of the thorniest challenges a government can take on. Russia's attempt to do so in 2018 led to President Vladimir Putin's lowest approval ratings in years. Putin eventually pushed the plan through but granted concessions, a rare move for him.
A pension reform plan in France prompted a prolonged transportation strike last year, forcing the government to shelve the proposal.
The Chinese government itself abandoned a previous effort to raise retirement ages in 2015, in the face of a similar outcry.
This time, it seems determined to follow through. But it has also acknowledged the backlash. Officials appear to be treading gingerly, leaving the details vague for now but suggesting that the threshold would be raised by just a few months each year.
"They've been talking about it for a long time," said Albert Francis Park, an economics professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology who has studied China's retirement system. "They'll have to really exercise quite a bit of resolve to push it through."
China has been hurtling toward a retirement age crisis for years. The current standards were set in the 1950s, when the average citizen was expected to live until only his or her early 40s.
But as the country has swiftly modernized, life expectancy has reached nearly 77 years, according to World Bank data. Birthrates have also plummeted, leaving China's population distinctly top-heavy. More than 300 million people, about one-fifth of the population, are expected to be over 60 by 2025, according to the government.
The result is what experts call a serious threat to China's continued economic growth and ability to compete. In Japan and many European nations, residents become eligible for pensions at 65 or later. At a recent news conference, You Jun, the deputy minister of human resources and social security, said China risked a "waste of human resources."
The backlash has underscored a host of other anxieties in Chinese society about issues such as job security, the social safety net and income inequality.
Older workers may suffer more. China has modernized so quickly that they tend to be much less skilled or educated than their younger counterparts, making some employers reluctant to retain them, Park said. In several industries, including tech, 35 is seen as the age ceiling for being hired.
Delaying retirement also risks undermining another major government priority: encouraging couples to have more children, to slow the aging of the population.
In part because of inadequate child care resources, the vast majority of Chinese rely on grandparents to be the primary caretakers for their children. Now, social media users are asking what will happen if the older generation is still working.
Lu Xia, 26, said the prospect of later retirement made it impossible to consider having a second child. More children would eventually mean more grandchildren to care for, even as she was expected to keep working.
"With delayed retirement, it's hard to imagine what we'll have to face by the time that we are grandparents," said Lu, who lives in the city of Yangquan, southwest of Beijing.
Unless China increases support for child care, new parents may leave the workforce or postpone childbirth until their parents retire, exacerbating the labor shortage, Feng Jin, an economist at Fudan University, told a state-backed labor publication.
Still, experts maintain that the cost of inaction would be too high. A 2019 report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences predicted that the country's main pension fund would run out by 2035, in part because of the dwindling workforce.
That has alarmed some young people, who wonder where their own pensions will come from if nothing changes.
"I think this is pretty fair," Wang Guohua, a 29-year-old blogger in Hebei province, said of pushing back retirement ages. "If people are still alive but there's no more money, that will affect social stability."
Wang added that he did not see the appeal of retiring at 60, given how much life expectancy had increased: "You won't have anything to do."
Meng, the urban management worker, is paid about US$460 a month, one-tenth of which he pays toward pension and basic medical insurance funds. When he finally retires, he expects to draw $120 to $150 a month.
He acknowledged that it was barely enough to live on. But he said he could make it work — even if he was now increasingly unsure when the date would come.
"All I can do is hold on," Meng said. "Keep holding on until I've reached the right age."
Written by: Vivian Wang and Joy Dong
Photograph by: Gilles Sabrié
© 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES
