At first thought, it might be considered inappropriate to include the People’s Republic
of China in a book investigating the ‘East Asian model’ of social policy. Unlike other
societies in the region, including those inhabited by largely Chinese communities
such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, mainland China has usually been seen
as a member of a sharply contrasting family of social security models, that of
communist or state socialist societies, with their distinctive patterns of state,
collective and enterprise provision of welfare benefits.1
However, major changes
have been taking place in Chinese society under the impact of the post-Mao
programme of economic reforms launched in 1978 which aim at establishing a
‘socialist market economy’. Unlike the post-socialist states of Eastern Europe and
the former Soviet Union (FSU), where economic reform was accompanied or preceded
by radical political reforms which broke the mould of one-party Leninist politics,
China has been following a distinctive path in which sweeping economic reforms
have not been accompanied by significant attempts to change the previous political
system. In spite of this political continuity, however, there have been major changes
in China’s economy and society since the 1970s which show strong elements of
convergence with its East Asian capitalist neighbours