China’s welfare reform: An ambiguous road towards a Social Protection Floor

Abstract

China’s recent efforts in extending social protection resonate with the goals of the Social Protection Floor, even if Chinese policy-makers have not explicitly incorporated the Floor in the reform process. However, as this review of developments in the fields of social assistance, unemployment insurance, pensions, and health insurance suggests, major challenges persist, namely inadequate and declining benefit levels, funding issues, and fragmentation of the system, which to some degree have perpetuated existing inequalities. These challenges reflect a strong institutional heritage from the pre-reform era, which poses the biggest obstacle to the development of a coherent national social protection system.