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Old people are the core support of the CCP and their proxies in Hong Kong, Macao etc. People who don't want disruption and just want a quiet, comfortable life where they get the basics and avoid the cruel eyes of the people in power. There's even a term for this kind of existence in Chinese:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%81%8E%E6%97%A5%E5%AD%90
Such a concept would understandably evolve in a highly inegalitarian agricultural society, as Mainland China has been until very recently. Do the work that the landowner requires of you and no more; avoid being assigned extra work by the supervisor; don't get in trouble. That way, you have a good chance at gaming the calories in / calories out ratio to put on some fat before the next bad harvest or civil war. If you work hard, you will be leaner and at more risk of death when the hard times come, but you will receive little rewards outside of heaven...
The CCP and its proxies have learnt the secret to governing China, which is to keep people doing 過日子 content. The youth will always have their periods of rebellion, the intellectuals can never be trusted, and the ambitious must be monitored within broad limits, but most Chinese people are happy to do the minimum amount of work, play on their phones whenever they can, and obey the copious orders that Chinese society provides for them in lieu of giving them initiative.
If China became a competitive democracy tomorrow (or maybe until yesterday...) I would expect the CCP to win the first elections, because they have the elders on their side. However, mass deaths among the old would severely hurt the CCP in three directions: lost supporters to covid, lost supporters due to elders' resentment at the failure to keep them safe, and lost supporters due to the outrage of the younger generations at the (salient) death of their parents and grandparents.
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