Wang Fengqin suffered from hunger in her youth, when Mao Zedong was running China, so it brings her joy to cook a nice dinner whenever her sons visit her in the rapidly depopulating northeastern
By Eduardo Baptista and Farah Master WUDAOGANG, China (Reuters) - Wang Fengqin suffered from hunger in her youth, when Mao Zedong was running China, so it brings her joy to cook a nice dinner whenever her sons visit her in the rapidly depopulating northeastern village of Wudaogang. Come home to eat, mum can still afford to make you this meal, the 70-year-old retired farmer said, recalling how their phone calls usually start, as she took a break from chopping cabbage in her wood-fired kitchen. On a 2,000 yuan ($290) monthly pension, she can hardly afford anything else. Going to the hospital to check her growing abdominal pain could cost her 1,000 yuan, she said. A problem for Chinese leaders as they plan to reform the country s fragmented, poorly funded pension system, is that the provincial government in Heilongjiang needs cash transfers from richer regions to pay even Wang s modest benefit. As China s 1.4 billion population declines and ages, in part because of a policy that limited c