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Excluding city states, it has the fourth lowest birth rate in the world, probably about 0.9 right now and falling fast.
They've got a few decades left, but before long China is gonna be the world's largest nursing home.
They've got a large reserve of the undeveloped hinterland population plus the lack of a democracy means less of an issue with total boomer hijack creating the void that Western civilization is currently disappearing into. The average Chinese boomer has way less power to enforce their will onto the general population.
How do you feel that balances with a much more explicit meme of filial piety versus the West? How does the average "4-2-1" grandchild in China feel about their obligations to their elders?
Your point makes sense too, but I'm not sure how to balance them.
Decent amount of the elderly who don't have the familial support are the childless, plus it cuts both ways to a large degree where if you have failed to cultivate sufficient familial bonds to support you in your dotage there's less of a duty of care. I don't think the Chinese state is gonna necessarily let them rot/put a bullet in the head of 80 year olds, but it wouldn't shock me if there's a lot more push towards centralized affordable care compared to what the Western Democratic voting body will allow.
Also sheer longevity of people these days means that even the filial obligations aren't falling that far down. I just went to my Chinese diaspora wife's Great Grandmother's 100th birthday recently and she's got 10 of her 12 children still alive, though she's got about 150 descendants and their particular birthrate collapse is more '12->7->4->4' so less of an issue
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