Marketization of Eldercare in Urban China: Processes, Effects, and Implications

China is one of the most rapidly aging societies worldwide. As eldercare services have only been developed over the last two decades, the party-state has increased its efforts by promoting the marketization of eldercare services. Drawing on Vaittinen, Hoppania, and Karsio’s “political economy of care” framework, this study conducts a comparative analysis of marketization processes in Hangzhou and Nanjing to examine local government marketization strategies, their effects on service development, and their socioeconomic implications. I argue that local governments have pursued a “dual-track marketization” strategy. On the one hand, the means-tested public eldercare service infrastructure, which has existed since the Mao Zedong era, has been made subject to the kinds of neoliberal market reforms also found in, for example, European countries, while on the other hand, an entirely new private eldercare service infrastructure is being set up. As the market logic takes over, however, income- and gender-based social inequalities are enhanced.