In Depth: How Guardians Can Support China’s Swelling Ranks of Solo Seniors
The sudden death of a close friend forced Fang Tian to confront a difficult question: who will take care of her if something happens?
Fang, who has no children and has lived alone since getting divorced decades ago, said her 79-year-old friend died unexpectedly in her sleep.
“What if I end up in the ICU or need emergency care? What happens after I’m gone?” the 69-year-old said. She’s not the only senior asking these questions.
The number of elderly Chinese people living alone is rising sharply. Due to a lack of support, many face difficulties securing medical care, entering nursing homes, or arranging end-of-life affairs.
A 2023 survey by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Beijing Association on Aging found that nearly 80% of the 1,611 elderly people surveyed thought that they would struggle to arrange care and handle emergencies if they didn’t have support from their immediate family.
One solution is voluntary guardianship. Under China’s Civil Code, adults can appoint a trusted person or organization to make decisions on their behalf if they can no longer do so.
Fang chose a younger man she knew through her work, who she calls her “godson.” After learning about guardianship while studying for a legal exam, he formally took on the role this April.
But many seniors are not as fortunate. Some spend years searching in vain for a willing guardian, as many people misunderstand the obligations of the role. While charitable organizations are emerging as a third option, services remain limited. Few qualified groups exist nationwide, and the sector still lacks clear standards, oversight and safeguards to protect vulnerable people.
Growing demand
Fei Chao, director of the Shanghai-based Jinshan Guardianship, first noticed elderly people’s need for guardianship years ago while working at Shanghai Jinmei Elderly Care, an organization that supported seniors with dementia.
“Some newly diagnosed patients without children were afraid that as their cognitive functions declined, no one would be able to handle their medical or long-term care decisions,” Fei recalled.
In China, the traditional expectation is that children will look after their elderly parents. However, declining birthrates and migration have undermined this assumption. A 2021 national survey showed nearly 60% of elderly Chinese lived in “empty nest” households — homes where seniors live alone or only with a spouse — up 10 percentage points from 2010.
Chen Yahui of the Beijing Luwei Silver Age Research and Service Center said that there are four types of seniors who particularly need guardians: the childless, those whose children live overseas, those who are estranged from their children, and households where aging parents care for their disabled children.
Yet many elderly people struggle to find a guardian. Seniors typically turn to relatives or friends, only to find few are willing. Lawyer Cai Sheng, who previously specialized in will services, said some clients even asked him to be their guardian.
In part, this may be due to concerns over the burden guardianship may bring. “Some think guardians are responsible for everything. But daily care isn’t part of the formal role,” said Zhang Jiyuan, associate professor and deputy director of the Public Policy Research Center at East China Normal University.
Relying on individuals carries risks, such as financial abuse, so using a professional organization could offer greater accountability, said Wang Juemin, director of the International Wills Center at Beijing Jingcheng Notary Office and head of the China Law Guardianship Center.
Fei noted the trade-offs: personal guardians offer emotional support but the mixing of personal and financial relationships may lead to problems; organizations are more neutral but lack intimacy.
China’s legal reforms have gradually expanded guardianship rights. The 2012 revision of the Elderly Rights Law introduced voluntary guardianship for seniors. The Civil Code extended it to all adults in 2021.
Specialized organizations began to emerge in recent years. Beijing Silver Age began offering services in 2018. In 2020, Jinmei Elderly Care helped launch Jinshan Guardianship, which became the first organization in the country dedicated solely to providing social guardianship services. In 2021, Cai founded Harmony Social Guardianship in Guangzhou.
Harmony’s first client was a 75-year-old man who, after waiting in agony for his brother to sign a surgery consent form, sought help from the center.
Jinshan Guardianship has since provided 167 consultations and completed 42 agreements. More than 80% involve medical decisions or care visits.
Chen estimated that in Hong Kong, about one in 1,250 people have signed a guardianship authorization. Applying that ratio to Beijing would suggest at least 17,500 people may need such services.
But only about 10 organizations nationwide have received government approval to offer guardianship services. Most are in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Fuzhou.
“There’s a real mismatch — demand is soaring, but supply is extremely limited,” Chen pointed out.
A difficult start
One barrier to entry is a lack of specific, national qualification standards for guardianship organizations. Most local authorities use the requirements for general nonprofit organizations. It took Harmony three years to get approval.
Another problem is finding the people that need help. “For most seniors, voluntary guardianship is still a foreign concept,” said Li Xin, an associate professor at Jiangnan University and director of the Research Center on Guardianship Trust Law.
Even when seniors connect with organizations, building trust takes time. Harmony has received over 600 inquiries but completed just 15 agreements.
Financial sustainability is a concern. Seniors often ask, “What happens if the organization shuts down?”
Voluntary guardianship agreements typically include a proxy phase while the senior is mentally sound, and a guardianship phase that begins after a court declares diminished capacity. Fees range from 500 yuan ($70) monthly during the proxy phase to 2,000 yuan to 2,500 yuan during guardianship.
“Those rates are both the upper limit of what seniors are willing to pay and the lower bound of our cost,” Chen said.
Legal risks also loom. A 2024 judicial interpretation clarified that guardians are liable for damages caused by those under their care. “In effect, it’s unlimited joint liability,” Chen said.
Li warned that voluntary guardians face serious risks without protections. “Unlike family guardians, they don’t inherit assets, but they still carry full legal responsibilities,” she said.
Who watches the watchmen?
The novelty of the concept has also left unanswered questions around accountability.
“Older adults worry most about abuse of power — especially over property,” Chen said.
Such concerns are not unfounded. Zhang said even in Japan, with a mature system, there have been scandals involving misappropriated assets.
To mitigate risk, Chinese organizations often use a “person-property separation” model. Assets are managed by relatives or notary offices, or placed in trusts. The organization retains control over a small fund for emergencies.
Still, oversight remains fragmented. “We need mechanisms for when individuals or organizations pose moral risks,” Zhang said.
Li said Article 36 of the Civil Code allows courts to revoke a guardian’s qualifications in cases of misconduct.
In the practice of voluntary guardianship, professionals advocate appointing a supervisor, and a range of parties have taken on that role. Individuals, notary offices, neighborhood committees, social organizations, foundations and law firms can all serve as guardianship supervisors.
Several experts warned that due to the absence of a unified supervisory body, oversight of voluntary guardianship remains inadequate. If problems with an organization emerge when they have seniors under their guardianship, it is unclear who would be responsible for petitioning a court.
Li called for an active mechanism to detect breakdowns and reassign guardianship. She advocates for a centralized body under the civil affairs authority that can monitor guardianship.
Other countries offer models. In Canada, public guardianship offices can freeze assets and replace guardians. Singapore’s Office of the Public Guardian oversees the entire guardianship process, regularly checks on the person’s well-being, and reviews the guardian’s reports and finances.
Social guardianship alone can’t fill the gap in adult care. A complete system is needed — with family guardianship as the base, supplemented by social and public guardianship, experts said.
According to Chen, older adults with some legal awareness and assets can first designate their own trusted guardian. If they don’t make arrangements, public guardianship should step in.
In fact, the Civil Code says that when no guardian is available, civil affairs departments or local committees act as guardians of last resort.
But the boundaries between roles remain unclear. Wang noted that dividing responsibilities among family, society, and the state require clearer policies.
On the ground, some efforts have begun. Cai said his organization asks clients to contact their neighborhood committee, which could act as a fallback guardian.
So far this year, Harmony has handled over 100 inquiries — many from neighborhood committees, community centers and social work stations. “It’s a good start,” Cai said.
Fang Tian is a pseudonym.
Contact reporter Guo Xin (xinguo@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)
caixinglobal.com is the English-language online news portal of Chinese financial and business news media group Caixin. Global Neighbours is authorized to reprint this article.
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