AFTER TRAVELING FOR SEVERAL HOURS BY CAR with his daughter from his current home in Wuhan to Hongan, Central China's Hubei province, a 90-year-old man was carried in his armchair to the third floor of the building of the society security bureau of Hongan county, his hometown, so that the county government continues to pay his pension next year. Thepaper.cn comments:

Such scenarios are common as there 200 million pensioners in China, and they all have to prove to the social security departments in their hometowns once a year that they are still alive.

If they cannot manage the trip on time, they can also take a photo holding the front page of a latest newspaper whose date must be distinguishable in the photo and send the photo to their friends or families who can show it to the social security officials to prove they are alive, at least when the newspaper was published. After the old man's story went viral, the Hongan social security bureau pointed out that the old man's daughter was not aware that such a photo would suffice. The incident should prompt the government to rethink the possibility of putting an end to the annual check.

What if the pensioners no longer live in their hometowns and have no contacts there, or they do not use a smartphone that can take a photo and send it via the internet immediately?

The central government should accelerate the construction of e-governance nationwide and prompt the connection of local governments' databases. Then the pensioners can go to the nearest government department if they need a face-to-face communication.

In fact, most pensioners use banks and hospitals, all of which have records of their visits in their databases. It would be much easier and reliable to use such data to prove whether a person is alive or dead.