ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the emergence of social enterprises in China. It gives an overview of the number and types of social enterprises. The numbers are uncertain but they give an idea of their position in the country. They were as influenced by the global social enterprise movement as national policy changes. One game-changing policy was indigenous innovation, called for in “The National Medium and Long-term Plan for Technology Development” issued by the State Council in 2006. Following this call, China propped up its domestic capacity for innovation. A national innovation system emerged initially concentrated on science and technology. Social innovation policies followed. Another game-changer was comprehensive social policy and administrative reforms. These filtered down the hierarchy of the CCP and state bureaucracy, which created different local conditions for the private enterprises and grassroots organisations that had gained legitimacy as part of the reforms. The chapter also briefly addresses two ways the domestic academic discourse differs from the Western one. It is more concerned with Adam Smith as a moral philosopher than an economist and, in line with productivist welfare policies, more concerned with economic development as a condition for social development than social development as an end.
