ABSTRACT
In the pre-reform period, China was considered ‘a welfare society in a lower income country’ (Guan 2000) operating a large social programme in both urban and rural areas. In the urban area, the state provided a wide range of social welfare such as healthcare, pensions and housing, mainly through the work unit system (Gu 2001a, 2001b; Lu and Perry 1997). Ever since the launching of economic reform, the government has striven to build up an economic state during the transitional period (Chen 2003), when economic efficiency is prioritized over social equality.2 In line with the economic transition, social policy in the country has undergone fundamental changes. The state has made great efforts to ‘societalize’ the welfare system, seeking to share the responsibility of providing social welfare between central government, local government, work units and individuals (Gu 2001a, 2001b; Guan 2000). The orientation of the reform of social policy in China is following a ‘neo-liberal’ pattern, aiming to reduce the role of the state in the provision of welfare and to increase individual responsibility for social welfare and wellbeing (Guan 2000).
