Social Welfare Provisions and the Limits of Inequality in Contemporary China

DURING THE PAST decades China has changed from a crumbling agrarian society, with a population living at or below subsistence levels, into an industrializing, unified state. Before the 1949 revolution inequality was most pronounced between gentry-landlords and poor peasants; today, inequalities are most apparent between economic sectors and regions. Some develop rapidly, while others lag behind. In this article we will try to ascertain what levels of material and social welfare have been reached in China; what the effect of China's developmental policies has been on different parts of society; and in what social framework the Chinese live today. Social welfare may be conceived in a very broad manner as the organized contribution of society and parts thereof to the material and non-material needs of the population. For China, it seems practical'to make a distinction between three categories of social welfare. First, there is social welfare based on government laws and regulations in the socialist sector of the economy. This covers some 75 million workers and employees in State enterprises and organizations, and their families, who live almost entirely within cities.' Second is social welfare in the