Mending the Chinese Welfare Net: Tool for Social Harmony or Regime Stability?

After three decades of stunning economic growth Chinese society has become increasingly unequal and conflict ridden. At the turn of the 21st century, the country has been gripped by waves of social discontent and popular protests and its social welfare system, an instrument to manage the social risks and failures of the market system, badly needs an overhaul. Since the late 1990s, the state has stepped up efforts to mend the Chinese welfare net. This paper discusses what these measures are and what drives the state to improve on welfare engineering. It begins by contextualizing welfare reform against the policy agenda of enhancing social harmony. It then discusses policy innovation in five areas: introduction of social assistance; extension of social security; improving welfare provision for migrants; promoting, controlling, and assisting NGOs; and reforming health care to bring it accessible for all. Key obstacles that hinder the full fledged development of China’s social protection system will be briefly reviewed. In closing, the author argues that recent welfare reforms are mainly driven by concerns for social stability and regime preservation in an attempt to shore up the resilience of the authoritarian regime.