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Letters

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words.
Your report, “China’s state agencies are hiring retirees as the workforce rapidly ages” (July 19), highlights an intriguing response to one of Asia’s defining demographic challenges. China’s universities, hospitals and government agencies are discovering something societies often forget: retirement from a job does not necessarily mean retirement of one’s usefulness.
As a physician who has spent decades in medicine, I see ageing differently from the conventional calendar. Chronological age tells us how many birthdays someone has celebrated; functional age tells us what that person can still contribute.
A healthy 65- or 70-year-old physician, professor, engineer, scientist or administrator might possess something no university can quickly manufacture and no artificial intelligence can fully replicate: decades of accumulated judgment.
China’s experiment therefore deserves attention across Asia. Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and, eventually, much of Southeast Asia face similar demographic pressures. Instead of viewing population ageing primarily as an expanding pension and healthcare burden, governments should also ask how healthy longevity can become productive longevity.
This does not mean indiscriminately raising retirement ages. A construction worker whose body has endured four decades of physical labour faces a very different reality from a professor able to teach or mentor part-time at 70. The better approach is flexible, voluntary and health-sensitive: phased retirement, part-time consultancy, mentoring, research, telemedicine and intergenerational skills transfer.
Governments and employers should create second-career pathways that allow older professionals to contribute without blocking opportunities for younger workers. The best arrangement might unite the two generations: senior workers provide judgment and institutional memory; younger colleagues contribute technological fluency and fresh perspectives.
There are health benefits too. Purpose, social engagement and continued intellectual activity are important components of healthy ageing, provided work remains voluntary and appropriate to individual capacity.
Asia might discover that one answer to its ageing workforce has been sitting at home all along. The demographic challenge, therefore, is not simply how to support millions of older citizens. It is how to stop prematurely retiring their wisdom.
Rafael R. Castillo, Manila, Philippines
Indonesia and China should innovate together
For more than a decade, Indonesia-China relations have been defined by impressive investment figures. From the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway to nickel processing plants and industrial estates, cooperation has helped reshape Indonesia’s economic landscape. These projects have created jobs, strengthened infrastructure and accelerated industrialisation.
The next phase of the partnership should not be measured simply by the value of new investments. It should be judged by how much knowledge, technology and innovation the two countries create together.
The global economy is entering a period when competitiveness depends less on cheap labour and more on research, digital capabilities and advanced manufacturing. China has become one of the world’s leading innovation economies, investing heavily in research and development. Indonesia has a young population, abundant natural resources and ambitious plans to move beyond commodity dependence.
These strengths are complementary. Rather than focus on financing new industrial projects, both governments should expand cooperation in university partnerships, joint research centres, technology transfer, vocational education and talent development.
Indonesian researchers and students would gain greater access to China’s rapidly evolving innovation ecosystem, while Chinese institutions would deepen their engagement with Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Such cooperation would also make bilateral relations more resilient.
Investment flows fluctuate with global economic conditions, commodity prices and geopolitical tensions. However, knowledge partnerships create long-term trust and shared capacity that endure beyond economic cycles.
For Indonesia, this would support its ambition to escape the middle-income trap by developing higher-value industries and improving productivity. For China, it would reinforce its role as a partner in sustainable regional development rather than merely a source of capital. As Asia navigates technological competition and an increasingly uncertain global economy, the success of international partnerships will depend on how much money is invested as well as how much innovation is shared.
Indonesia and China have already shown they can build railways, factories and industrial zones together. The greater challenge is to build laboratories, research networks and future innovators. That would be a partnership measured in billions of dollars and ideas capable of shaping Asia’s next chapter.
Budi Kristanto, Banjarmasin, Indonesia


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Chinese man, 106, embraces ‘reverse schedule’, celebrated alongside wife as ‘model couple’

In a bid to boost births, Shanghai waives out-of-pocket expenses for maternal care

China's ageing population

Solution to Asia’s ageing workforce could be sitting at home retired

Elderly people enjoy the sunshine in a park in Shanghai. Chinese government departments are increasingly hiring retirees as society ages rapidly. Photo: Shutterstock

Hong Kong births fall below 30,000 for first time, even as population edges up

People on their way to work during rush hour in Central. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Midyear census data also showed that during the same period, Hong Kong recorded a net inflow of 39,800 residents. Photo: Sun Yeung

Greyest village in Japan turns to Peru sister city to plug severe worker shortage

Saijo Hasegawa, mayor of Nanmoku, looks at a river near a roadside station in the Gunma prefecture village on August 3. Photo: Kyodo

Nanmoku village mayor Saijo Hasegawa (right) displays the sister-city agreement at a signing ceremony in Belen, Peru, in November 2025. Photo: Handout/Kyodo

Opinion

Readers discuss second-career pathways for older professionals, and why Indonesia and China should innovate together


Readers discuss second-career pathways for older professionals, and why Indonesia and China should innovate together.


.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Readers discuss second-career pathways for older professionals, and why Indonesia and China should innovate together

Readers discuss second-career pathways for older professionals, and why Indonesia and China should innovate together