Senior citizens are dying at an unprecedented pace after President Xi Jinping's administration abandoned the zero-COVID policy. (Nikkei montage/Reuters)

Analysis: China's elderly pay ultimate price for COVID missteps

Senior citizens die at unprecedented pace, leaving families devastated

KATSUJI NAKAZAWA, Nikkei senior staff writer

January 12, 2023 04:01 JST

Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff and editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He was the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize.

In China, young people do not hesitate to offer their seats to the elderly in trains and buses. The Confucian culture has always had, and continues to have, a tradition of respecting senior citizens.