On 6 May, the Founding Assembly of the Legal Service Branch of China Association of Social Welfare and Senior Service (CASWSS) was held in Beijing to elect the President, Vice President, Secretary General and Council Members. At the same time, the first meeting of the Council was held to discuss and adopt the CASWSS Legal Service Branch Work Regulations and Work Plan 2023-2025. Feng Xiaoli, President of CASWSS, addressed the meeting. Guo Qingliang, Honorary President of the Branch and Che Chengjun, President of the Branch officially inaugurated the Branch.

At the meeting, the "Report on the Preparatory Work for the Establishment of CASWSS Legal Service Branch" was deliberated and adopted; Chen Tao, Guo Qingliang, Li Yalan, Ma Hongjun and Ma Xinyan were elected as the Honorary Presidents of CASWSS Legal Service Branch;  Che Chengjun was elected as the President of CASWSS Legal Service Branch; Wang Xu, Wang Yunyun, Liu Lingling, Liu Xiaomei, Li Ning, Yang Chen, Zhang Hong, Zhang Yixiong, Zhang Hongguang and Zhao Yuefan, Zhang Yong, Zhan Aiping, Tan Gang and Li Xiaoguang (in order of last name) were elected as Vice Presidents; Zhu Guangyuan was elected as Secretary General; Mr. Chen Hua, Wang Wensheng, Tian Hongying and 43 others were elected as members of the 1st Council.

President Feng Xiaoli congratulated the establishment of the Legal Services Branch and its elected officers. She pointed out that the 20th CPC National Congress report proposed "implementing a national strategy to actively respond to population ageing, developing the elderly care cause and the elderly care industry, optimizing services for widows and orphans, and promoting the realization of basic elderly care services for all elderly people." One of the basic elderly services includes legal services. It is hoped that the Legal Service Branch will play its organizing and coordinating role, integrate the advantages of various legal service resources, address the legal service needs of elderly group service providers and family members, seriously study the legal service model and standards, and through regional pilot landing practices, promote the protection of the dignity and legitimate rights and interests of elderly groups by the whole society, and continuously give China's social welfare and elderly care We will continue to give new connotations and momentum to China's social welfare and elderly services, and contribute to the healthy development of the cause of the elderly and the well-being of the elderly in the new era of China.

Che Chengjun, on behalf of the 1^st Council, delivered a speech on his election. He expressed his firm support for the decision of CASWSS to establish a legal services branch, which will focus on legal services for the elderly according to the unified deployment of the association, and make a difference in the implementation of the national strategy to actively deal with ageing; strive to build the branch into an important platform for the integration of legal services resources, complementary functions, information sharing, learning and exchange, to meet the needs of the majority of the elderly for legal services such as marriage and family, property rights, alimony and inheritance, and to promote the continuous improvement of the institutional mechanism of guardianship, elderly care model and medical services, property rights, maintenance and inheritance and other legal service needs, promote the continuous improvement of institutional mechanisms related to elderly guardianship, elderly care models and medical services, protect the human dignity, intellectual property rights and labour rights of elderly groups, take the initiative to prevent and resolve all kinds of conflicts and disputes, and help improve the rule of law in social governance in the field of elderly services.

CASWSS is a state-level 4A non-benefit social organization. At the end of 2021, CPC Central Committee and State Council Opinions on Strengthening the Work on the Elderly in the New Era was promulgated, and the protection of the rights and interests of the elderly and the legal issues in the work on ageing have attracted widespread attention.CASWSS decided to set up a legal service branch to fully mobilize quality resources from various fields and areas to provide CASWSS has decided to set up a legal services subcommittee to mobilize quality resources from various fields to provide a high standard of legal services to the general ageing community and industries related to the ageing business.

The first Council of the Legal Services Branch is composed of representatives from notary institutions, law firms, arbitration bodies, legal aid, people's mediation, elderly finance, elderly organizations, technology companies and other organizations across the country.

The inaugural meeting was hosted by Tan Gang, Deputy Secretary General of the China Association of Social Welfare and Elderly Services.

(Source: CASWSS Legal Service Branch)