ABSTRACT
Reducing vulnerability and increasing livelihood opportunities encompasses not just income opportunities, but also productive assets. This is especially important as the 2008 financial crisis revealed structural vulnerabilities as the labor intensive exports manufacturing sector reduced output. This resulted in a decline in employment opportunities and remittance to rural areas in China. To ensure the development of a harmonious society would require improvement in livelihood opportunities, in particular for the poorer segments of society. This could only be resolved by addressing issues such as inequality, environmental degradation, natural disasters, migration and political participation. The advantages of addressing these issues would be that households increase their resilience as they would have the capacity to adapt to challenges by changing employment or addressing their grievances to the government.
