More Welfare after Economic Reform? Welfare Development in the People's Republic of China (review)

Reviews 65 Cecilia L. W. Chan and Nelson W. S. Chow. More Welfare after EconomicReform? WelfareDevelopment in thePeople's Republic ofChina Hong Kong: Center for Urban Planning and Environmental Management, University ofHong Kong, 1992. 179 pp. copyright1994 by University of Hawai'i Press Welfare (full) in China is an entitlement—an entitlement under socialism. Not everyone, however, enjoys the same entitlement. An individual's entitlement depends on that person's social, economic, and political centrality to the socialist state. Those who work in state-owned enterprises and organizations are considered at the center and are the dominant part of the social structure. For them the word welfare is equivalent to the word benefit. Those outside these institutions are only the residuals. For them, welfare is relief (a good example to illustrate this contrast is the fact that in 1987 the government spent eight times as much—29.46 billion yuan—on price subsidies alone for the 20 percent ofthe population who are urban residents as on welfare and relief for the rest of the country). Both categories of people rely on welfare—the former constantly and abundantly and the latter only occasionally and superficially. Chan and Chow's book assesses the welfare system and reform by focusing on the system as it exists for people who are at the center, in the urban areas. This choice is by no means a random one, since it is in urban areas that the state welfare system has played an extremely important role in fostering the individual's dependence on the state. The relationship thereby established is what Andrew Wälder has labeled a patron-client relationship between the state and the individual. In a detailed and clear fashion, Chan and Chow review five different kinds of welfare available in urban areas of China. The welfare provisions that have the most important implications for the state socialist system are those that are implemented through the Chinese work units (danwei). Welfare for urban employees, provided by the Chinese work unit, is not only an inseparable component of the socialist system in the generic sense, it is also what makes the Chinese socialist system unique. The welfare system, which provides urban employees with housing, child care, medical care, subsidized food, retirement pensions, and so on, has made urban Chinese dependent upon their employment institutions. These work units, in turn, are under the control of the state, within the planned-economy system. The welfare system before the current economic reform, therefore, played a role far beyond that of an economic 66 China Review International: Vol. ?, No. ?, Spring 1994 arrangement to realize the socialist ideals of equality; it became a social institution in itself. It is the synonym for Chinese socialism. Economic reform in China, therefore, carries with it the inevitable mission to overhaul the welfare system. Such an overhaul changes the fundamental social arrangements in contemporary Chinese society. It is in such a context that Chan and Chow's book makes an important contribution to the understanding of one ofthe most far-reaching and complex social and economic arrangements in China. The authors have done an excellent job in providing a systematic and thoughtful review of the evolution ofthe Chinese welfare system in the first half of the book. Their study is further enriched by empirical evidence, provided in the second half, which is a summary report of the results of a 1989 survey related to the provision of and attitudes toward welfare in three Chinese cities. Social welfare is not only a synonym for socialism, it is also a by-product of modern industrialization, marked by the socialization of production and circulation . China never developed a broad social welfare system prior to the socialist era, due to its family-centered social and economic tradition , and to the lack of development of socialized production. The social welfare system that existed before the socialist era, in Chan and Chow's terms, was a residual system. Very limited welfare and reliefprovisions existed only for the most unfortunate and destitute who were outside the protection of the family system. The social welfare system that was established under socialism, while necessary to facilitate rapid industrialization , also bears unmistakable signs of...