Introduction: People Oriented: A New Stage of Social Welfare Development in China
Alongside 35 years of economic development, China’s social welfare system has also undergone rapid change. The Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) is facing pressure to provide more services to the people it has served in the past, such as orphans, older people without families, and people with disabilities. The MCA is also facing pressure to provide new services to social groups that were not previously covered, such as orphans in communities, “left-behind children” whose parents have migrated to the cities for work. New service projects have been created overnight, as happened with free school lunches and school buses. Local governments, especially governments in relatively developed areas, are competing in welfare provision to see who can provide more and better services. Walking in the streets of Beijing, it is not unusual to see advertisements in supermarkets or in residential areas, along the lines of, “The government will provide a free pair of glasses to Beijing residents aged above a certain number of years” or “The government is providing a free health check (or a free flu injection) for all Beijing eligible residents in attendance at a particular time and place.” This new trend is vastly different from even a few years ago, when the role of government in welfare provision was strictly residual and welfare was generally regarded as the private responsibility of families for whom policy support was rare. At that time, the state
PENSION REFORM IN CHINA: PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS
China is currently in the process of developing the largest pension system in the world, and it is doing this at a time of unparalleled economic and demographic transition. The central government has followed a step-by-step approach to develop a system that can accommodate a rapidly aging society within a rapidly growing, but still largely underdeveloped economy. This paper analyses how far the process of creating a national old age insurance system had proceeded by the end of 2006. It provides a detailed description of this system and an assessment of to what degree it has so far achieved ?its primary goal of social security for more people? (Chinese Government, September 2006)... La Chine est en train de mettre en place le plus grand systeme de retraite au monde, ceci a une epoque de transition economique et demographique sans precedent. Le gouvernement central a suivi une approche graduelle pour creer un systeme qui puisse faire face a une societe vieillissante dans une economie galopante et encore pour une bonne part sous-developpee. Ce document montre jusqu'ou le processus de creation d'un systeme d'assurance national pour les personnes âgees a pu aller jusqu'a la fin de 2006. Il presente une description detaillee de ce systeme et evalue dans quelle mesure il a atteint au jour d'aujourd'hui « son objectif premier qui est la securite sociale pour plus de personnes » (Gouvernement chinois, septembre 2006)...
Elder Care Policies in China: The Social Value Foundation Is in the Family
If modernization means mass longevity, it raises hopes that everyone may enjoy a full span of years. It also brings the fear that many will not be able to take care of themselves and will rely upon society to provide special care. Modernization in this sense also means the rise of the welfare state: let the government take care of the frail and the old. Mass ageing has proven to be a financial crisis for welfare states in the advanced economies of the West; it also raises questions about the future of family-based care in the East while professionals and academicians in the advanced economies of the West continue to debate about whose responsibility it is to take care of the elders (the state or the individual?), governments in East Asia hold firmly to the position that it is the family that has the primary responsibility to take care of old members, and that the government's role is to assist families in discharging elder care responsibilities. This publication examines some of the often-raised questions identified in the research literature in the last 25 years - for example, the nature and scope of caregiving, the issue of care burden, and the claim that family-based care is really women care that is sex-biased. The author marshals evidence to show from studies conducted in China that care burden is a complex form of social relations that is shaped by the culture. Furthermore, the gender and type of relations may largely determine in what type of kin relations are the subjective feelings the greatest and where objective indications of burden may remain constant. In conclusion, the author suggests that the best common resolution for both the East and the West is to establish a workable partnership betwen the state and the family in facing the forthcoming crisis of elder care in a fully-aged society.