China piles extra work on weary youth to ease pension crisis

BEIJING — China's decision to raise the retirement age will give a brief boost to its strained pension system but risks further discouraging weary young workers and cannot arrest long-term demographic decline, experts say.

The country's ruling Communist Party announced last week a gradual increase in the statutory retirement age starting next year: from 60 to 63 for men and from 55 to 58 for white-collar women workers, and from 50 to 55 for blue-collar female employees.