The systematic literature review presented in this paper is aimed at analyzing the articles on the topic of population aging and financial sustainability in China and answering two general questions: How do various studies define financial sustainability? What effect does the aging of its population have on financial sustainability? The results show that academic definitions of financial sustainability could be classified into three aspects including, macro, meso, and micro. The macro level focuses on socioeconomic stability on the long term and intergenerational equity; the meso one is based on the actuarial balance and solvency of the pension systems, and the micro level is the concerns regarding the welfare of the individual and the elimination of elderly poverty. The paper also includes that aging population is having a direct effect to the financial sustainability in terms of declining the contributor, raising the pension spending and dependency ratio. At the same time, other drivers such as policy interventions (e.g., delayed retirement, fertility support), economic growth, population migration and technological change will act in a synergistic way with aging to determine financial sustainability. Despite the research existing, despite suggesting various reform avenues, the majority of scholars argue that there is no one policy that could be used to fully tackle the problem of financial stresses on pension systems in the long run. Rather, they need multidimensional systemic comprehensive reform strategies. Additional demographic, economic, and social considerations should be incorporated in the future study to build a more solid pension system model that will be able to handle the aging issues in China that are getting more serious.

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