China needs to defuse demographic timebomb: experts

China needs to improve health care and offer tax exemptions in elderly care to tackle an aging demographic structure that will pose severe challenges in the coming decades, experts have said.

The government should work to improve the health of the entire population and contain chronic diseases, so as to reduce health pressures in the future, Chen Wen, dean of the school of public health in Fudan University, told an aging seminar in Shanghai on Wednesday.

The seminar, hosted by Fudan University and Columbia University, was attended by scholars and policymakers from home and aboard.

It is important to invest in health, especially to prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs), said Linda P. Fried, dean of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Most NCDs - for instance, 80 percent of strokes and heart diseases, and 40 percent of cancers - are preventable, Fried said, noting that in China, however, 80 percent of senior citizens' deaths were caused by NCDs.

Investment in health is much more than just buying nutritional supplements or going to health education lectures, said Wen Yumei, a professor at Fudan University.

"All areas, including prevention, early diagnosis, early treatment, nursing and recovery, should be integrated into one complete system," Wen said.

Wu Yushao, deputy director of the China National Committee on Aging, proposed that the government offer tax exemptions for families who keep and take care of their elderly at home.

"Letting senior people stay home where they can be taken care of by their children is China's most realistic policy on aging. Communal nursing homes and other institutions can only serve as a supplement," Wu said.

Xi Zhiyong, chairman of Cherish Yearn, a company specializing in health care and nursing services for seniors, echoed Wu's view.

"No matter how important and how rich we are, we all have to go home at the end of the day. Going home is the most beautiful journey in life," Xi said.

China's population is aging. In 2015, about 222 million of the country's 1.3 billion citizens were 60 or older. That number is expected to grow at an alarming rate over the next few decades.

Wu estimated that by 2053, China's population above 60 years old would climb to a staggering 487 million, or 34.8 percent of the country at that time.

In addition, 40.63 million of China's elderly had partly or completely lost the ability to take care of themselves by the end of 2015, a great burden on families and society, Wu said. Endi