LNELecture Notes in Education, Arts, Management and Social ScienceTBA2705-053XBio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty. Ltd.10.18063/LNE.v4i4.1921ArticleThe Practice Process and Deep Logic of China’s Delayed Retirement System Reformhttps://artdesignp.com/journal/LNE/4/4/10.18063/LNE.v4i4.1921ZhuYuheng2026442026-04-26The Chinese delayed retirement system has undergone a long period of exploration and improvement, focusing on the balance between flexibility and rigidity and the pursuit of equality. Amid current pressures from population development, reviewing the history of China’s delayed retirement system reform, grasping the deep logic of institutional change, and summarizing practical experience are of great help to social governance work. This study combines policy documents related to the retirement system issued by the Party and the government since the founding of the People’s Republic of China and divides the process of China’s delayed retirement system reform into five stages: the initial and rigid formation stage, the stage of system improvement and local flexibility exploration, the stage of social security transformation and the emergence of flexibility, the stage of top-level design and policy deliberation, and the stage of full implementation and system stabilization. It finds that the institutional evolution shows a trend of weakening coercion and strengthening voluntariness, revealing the deep logic of institutional construction and the system demands involved, the response to the development of the times and social adaptation, and the necessary measures to overcome local institutional defects. This study attempts to provide marginal contributions to the current national retirement system reform.Delayed retirement,System reform,Practice history,Deep logic

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