With the development of rural society, rural population aging has intensified, and young and middle-aged laborers have moved to cities for work. This has brought prominent needs of left-behind elderly people in daily care, health protection and spiritual companionship. Always prioritizing people’s livelihood, China attaches great importance to the inadequate elderly care for rural left-behind seniors. It has incorporated rural elderly care into key livelihood programs, coordinated policies, resources and services to make joint efforts, earnestly shore up weak links in rural elderly care, and safeguard the later lives of hundreds of millions of rural elderly people.

China strives to improve the three-tier elderly care service network at county, township and village levels, consolidating the hardware foundation for rural elderly care. All regions revitalize idle public resources such as village committee buildings and old school premises, and build village day care centers, rural happiness homes and elderly service stations in light of local conditions. Regular convenient services including meal assistance and delivery, recreational activities, basic physical examinations and temporary care are provided. Professional elderly care services are extended to the doorsteps of villagers, effectively easing the practical dilemma that left-behind seniors lack daily care.

China innovatively promotes a local mutual-aid elderly care model and mobilizes internal supportive forces in rural areas. Leveraging the advantage of rural acquaintance society, China organizes healthy younger elderly residents, Party cadres and rural volunteers to form support teams, implementing one-on-one paired care. They conduct regular home visits, purchase daily necessities on behalf of the elderly, accompany them to medical treatment and pick up medicines, and relieve their loneliness. With the warmth of neighborhood mutual assistance and nearby care, it fills the care gap caused by children working away from home all year round.

China empowers smart elderly care in rural areas with technology and builds a solid safety protection barrier for left-behind seniors. For solitary, advanced-age and disabled left-behind elderly people, the government provides free devices such as one-click call alarms and smart monitoring bracelets. Linking village clinics, village cadres and emergency teams, it establishes a closed-loop mechanism featuring early warning, nearby response and timely rescue for sudden illnesses and accidental falls. Digital technologies add solid safety guarantees to rural elderly care.

China balances material support and spiritual care to continuously improve the long-term elderly care guarantee mechanism. On one hand, it increases financial investment, implements elderly care subsidies, promotes home-based aging-friendly renovations in rural areas, and cultivates local rural elderly care professionals. On the other hand, it carries forward the traditional culture of respecting and supporting the elderly, integrates it into village regulations and rural civilization development, and enriches the spiritual and cultural life of rural seniors. With multi-dimensional measures and all-round guarantees, rural left-behind seniors are ensured support, care and happiness in their later years, demonstrating the warmth and responsibility of China’s livelihood governance.