ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the development of social policy in China since the late 1970s, and examines its main achievements in welfare development. It is argued that social policies in the post-Mao China have experienced a dramatic transformation that aims to enhance market competition and accelerate economic growth. Though the state emphasised social equality and welfare redistribution and took on major responsibilities in the provision of social welfare services, two separate social policy regimes in rural and urban areas were established with the Household Registration System as its boundary. Due to the lack of funding for operations, the renowned cooperative medical scheme, a collective-based health insurance scheme for rural residents in Mao's China collapsed, leaving more than 80 per cent of the rural population uncovered by any healthcare insurance. The most significant break with the old employment system was the introduction of the labour contract system in 1986, indicating that job security was no longer the objective of China's labour policy.
