ABSTRACT
China, being a socialist country, is a society with a social vision: the achievement of a modern developed socialist society as a first step towards an egalitarian future society (see Dixon 1981a, pp.3–24). Envisaged is a society in which every member will share in the future abundance and in which everyone will have an equal opportunity to contribute to that prosperity. Social welfare is thus seen as a legitimate device for both the consolidation of socialism and the promotion of economic development: a means to an end rather than an end in itself.
