ABSTRACT
Focusing on the social policy making process at the national level, this chapter identifies the key national policy making institutions, namely the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the National People's Congress (NPC) and the State Council. The State Council is the highest executive organ of state power as well as the highest organ of state administration in China. Based on the Chinese political tradition and the Leninist principle of democratic centralism, China under the leadership of the CCP practices a unitary polity. Special attention has been directed to three key governmental departments in charge of social policy, such as the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS), the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA) and the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) which are key policy actors in social insurance, social assistance, social services and healthcare. Since the inception of the opening and reform policy in the late 1970s, China has been undergoing rapid and large-scale socio-economic transformations.
