In the last week of May, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government announced 30 measures to help harness the economic benefits of an aging demography. The number of people aged 65 and above in Hong Kong touched 1.68 million in late 2023, accounting for 22.4 percent of the total population and as per official indicators, by 2043, would likely reach 2.67 million, or about 35 percent of the population.

And the cumulative spending by that segment? In 2024, people older than 60 spent more than HK$342 billion ($43.6 billion) and the amount is projected to balloon to HK$496 billion within a decade. Certainly, it makes a lot of sense to have a clear road map to effectively tap the “silver economy”.

Early in May, the skeletal remains of an elderly man were found at a public rental flat in Kwai Chung after housing authorities following up on rent overdue for several months got security personnel to force entry.

With the next of kin overseas, and apparently not reachable, the final moments of the hapless elderly man must have been unimaginably forlorn in a bustling city of more than 7 million. What is even more tragic is that his passing was somewhat like a leaf being swept away by the winds: a void so undiscernible that for the grisly discovery to be made, it took the quotidian motivation of rent recovery rather than concerns about the well-being of a living, breathing member of the community who had a history of chronic illness.

Had nobody in Hong Kong missed this lonely elderly man?

According to a Legislative Council Secretariat research paper from March 2022, “Social isolation, referring to a lack of contact with family, friends or other people, brings more than a feeling of loneliness. Loneliness refers to the subjective feeling of being alone, regardless of the amount of social contact. Social isolation, by contrast, is the objective state of having few social connections and can often lead to loneliness in some people; it also poses profound public health risks, especially to the elderly.”

While preliminary investigations into the Kwai Chung case suggested that the death was not suspicious, in 2020, Hong Kong reported 438 elderly suicides, the highest number since records began in 1973. According to suicide prevention organization Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong, 1,080 cases of suicide were recorded in 2022, with more than 40 percent of the cases involving those aged 60 or above.

Hong Kong’s elderly deserve dignity and understanding in their sunset years, decoupled from the perceived benefits of their spending power or the lack of it. In a world which may seem increasingly incomprehensible to them, empathy — both institutional and personal — may yet change or even save an elderly life

A 2016 by-census survey indicated that the number of households with only one elderly occupant had surged by 54 percent compared with a decade previously. According to 2021 census data, the number of households with elderly people aged 65 and above stood at 1.02 million and, among them, the proportion of elderly singletons to all domestic households with elderly people was 18.5 percent.

The 2021 census also suggests that chronic diseases and various levels of disabilities made 306,000 or 28 percent of the elderly population dependent on long-term care.

According to a 2024 LegCo research note, elderly households are predominantly low-income households belonging to the lowest 20 percent income group in Hong Kong with a monthly household income of HK$10,000 or less. Furthermore, 85,000 older people in low-income elderly households were in need of long-term care.

Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration Cheuk Wing-hing stated on Tuesday that the labor force participation rate of those in the age bracket of 60-69 in the first quarter of 2025 was 38.8 percent, while that of the whole of Hong Kong in 2024 was 54.7 percent. It is highly possible that economic vulnerability is the main reason and concrete policies to boost elderly employment will certainly be welcome. A day later, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han told lawmakers that the government primarily relied on “diversified publicity activities” to encourage the private sector — which arguably employs the bulk of the elderly — to adopt elderly-friendly practices and left subvented organizations to their own devices.

If we look at the cohort that relies on subsidized housing, according to Hong Kong Housing Authority data submitted to LegCo, there were 121,789 elderly singleton households occupying public rental premises in Hong Kong as of March 2023. There were 55,229 occupants in the 60-69 age group; 40,888 occupants in the 70-79 age group; 19,879 occupants in the 80-89 age group; 5,645 occupants in the 90-99 age group and 148 single occupants aged 100 and above.

Clearly, the vulnerability of all seniors living alone, and those on the lower rung of the income ladder, is hard to miss and should not be drowned out by the deluge of all that enthusiasm about their spending power.

The vulnerability of this cohort is especially stark when we consider that during January to December 2024, the Social Welfare Department registered 283 cases of elder abuse, 190 of them referred to the police. Physical abuse topped the list, followed by psychological abuse. Women bore the brunt with at least seven sexually assaulted in the past year and partners/spouses were recorded as the most frequent perpetrators.

Hong Kong’s elderly deserve dignity and understanding in their sunset years, decoupled from the perceived benefits of their spending power or the lack of it. In a world which may seem increasingly incomprehensible to them, empathy — both institutional and personal — may yet change or even save an elderly life.

It is admirable to look for a silver lining in uncertain times, but surely, all that glitters is not silver. Unadulterated kindness, however, is eternal gold.  

The author is an award-winning English fiction writer and current affairs commentator.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.