ABSTRACT

In this concluding chapter, the author will review briefly the development of social policy in China since the late 1970s, identify its main achievements in welfare development, and examine its key challenges in the years to come. 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. After about two decades of state’s retreat in welfare provision, a new page for Chinese social policy development was opened in 2003 as a result of various social, economic and political pressures. Since then, China’s social policy entered a period of rapid expansion that has improved the well-being of some service users. While China has obtained some obvious achievements in social welfare, it is facing several great challenges ahead.