China May Make Adult Children Visit Their Parents

China's taking a new approach to elderly care.

Visit your parents... or else.

An early draft of amendments to China's already in place elderly care laws proposed requiring adult children to visit their parents, or face the possibility of being sued. The proposal was submitted Monday by the Civil Affairs Ministry to China's State Council, according to the Charlotte Observer.

The National People's Congress, China's government-appointed legislature, could consider the changes when it convenes in March.

The new legislation is the result of a changing social climate in China, according to AOL News. While in the past (for centuries) children were expected to care for their aging parents, this no longer the case for many Chinese.

The reason for the change, according to AOL, is largely related to China's one-child policy, which has left many parents with only one child to care for them. When these children move to big cities and industrial centers in order to find work, they must leave their parents to care for themselves.

The change seeks to address the growing issue of elderly care while China's older population grows.

From the Charlotte Observer:

But China's elderly population is growing rapidly while the number of young adults is shrinking, a huge demographic shift that has been building for decades. While the elderly still make up a relatively small share of China's population compared with some Western nations, demographers predict that the proportion of elderly will nearly double from 2008 to 2025. By 2050, they say, one in four Chinese will be 65 or older.