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Why would an emerging market economy without Western democratic institutions provide and promote social welfare to its citizens? This paper explores the driving forces behind the rapid yet unequal expansion of social welfare in China, a phenomenon notable since the late 1990s. Rather than adhering to the conventional state-centered approach that views welfare expansion as a strategy for one-party regimes to seek legitimacy, this study offers an alternate perspective that emphasizes the 'demand' side, particularly the role of business. Through a systematic analysis of all 336 Chinese municipalities from 2001 to 2012, the study demonstrates how big businesses act as 'vanguard,' pushing local governments to enhance social welfare provision. It suggests that big businesses, in the absence of institutionalized democratic institutions, serve as 'functional equivalents,' channeling societal demands to the government. This paper also finds that firms' influence on social policy in non-democracies is more capability based instead of institutional based; large domestic and multinational corporations are more capable in lobbying the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: From 2020 to 2050, China's population aged ≥65 years old is estimated to more than double from 172 million (12·0%) to 366 million (26·0%). Some 10 million have Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, to approach 40 million by 2050. Critically, the population is ageing fast while China is still a middle-income country. Methods: Using official and population-level statistics, we summarise China's demographic and epidemiological trends relevant to ageing and health from 1970 to present, before examining key determinants of China's improving population health in a socioecological framework. We then explore how China is responding to the care needs of its older population by carrying out a systematic review to answer the question: 'what are the key policy challenges to China achieving an equitable nationwide long-term care system for older people?'. Databases were screened for records published between 1st June 2020 and 1st June 2022 in Mandarin Chinese or English, reflecting our focus on evidence published since introduction of China's second long-term care insurance pilot phase in 2020. Results: Rapid economic development and improved access to education has led to widescale internal migration. Changing fertility policies and household structures also pose considerable challenges to the traditional family care model. To deal with increasing need, China has piloted 49 alternative long-term care insurance systems. Our findings from 42 studies (n = 16 in Mandarin) highlight significant challenges in the provision of quality and quantity of care which suits the preference of users, varying eligibility for long-term care insurance and an inequitable distribution of cost burden. Key recommendations include increasing salaries to attract and retain staff, introduction of mandatory financial contributions from employees and a unified standard of disability with regular assessment. Strengthening support for family caregivers and improving smart old age care capacity can also support preferences to age at home. Conclusions: China has yet to establish a sustainable funding mechanism, standardised eligibility criteria and a high-quality service delivery system. Its long-term care insurance pilot studies provide useful lessons for other middle-income countries facing similar challenges in terms of meeting the long-term care needs of their rapidly growing older populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2019, this paper uses a two-stage DEA model to measure regional innovation efficiency, then non-parametric test is used to examine the impact of innovation network structure and government R&D investment on regional innovation efficiency. The results show that, at the provincial level, innovation efficiency of regional R&D is not necessarily in direct proportion to the innovation efficiency in the commercialization stage. Commercialization efficiency is not necessarily high in provinces with high technical R&D efficiency. At the national level, the innovation efficiency gap between our country's R&D and commercialization stage is small, indicating that the development of the national innovation efficiency is more and more balanced. Innovation network structure can promote the R&D efficiency, but has no significant effect on the commercialization efficiency. Government R&D investment helps to improve the R&D efficiency, but it is not conducive to the improvement of commercialization efficiency. The interaction between innovation network structure and government R&D investment will have compound effects on regional innovation efficiency; the region with underdeveloped innovation network structure can increase the government R&D investment to make it have a higher level of R&D. This paper provides insights into how to improve innovation efficiency in different social networks and policy environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relative poverty alleviation is explicitly consistent with common prosperity. Relative poverty alleviation, which is part of the modernization of national governance capacity, is both an objective requirement of effective poverty alleviation and an inevitable approach to the realization of common prosperity. The alleviation of relative poverty and the realization of common prosperity are intrinsically coupled because they feature overlapping time sequences, monistic values, superimposed fields, similar systems, and homogeneous elements. The relationship between the two is essentially symbiotic, coexistent, and synergistic. Consequently, how to effectively alleviate relative poverty and build a dynamic longterm mechanism for relative poverty alleviation will be one of the major challenges for China to tackle before it can make more obvious and substantial progress toward common prosperity for all by 2035. This paper proposes relevant countermeasures and suggestions, which mainly concern the building of a dynamic, multi-dimensional mechanism for relative poverty alleviation and a coordinated mode for the two missions. The aim is to achieve a balanced integration of the academic logic, social logic, and policy logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to determine the main indicators of social instability and forms of its manifestation in the modern world. The elements of scientific novelty of this work are that the article comprehensively analyzes the main signs of social instability in global and regional contexts, shows their essential relationship. The research methodology is based on a complex combination of philosophical (dialectical, axiological) and general scientific methods of studying the problem of social instability in the modern world, including synergetic, comparative and concretization methods. Social turbulence has resulted from intensifying geopolitical confrontations and "economic wars" between the world's leading countries, including the United States and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Razón Crítica is the property of La Fundacion Universidad de Bogota Jorge Tadeo Lozano and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

How does increased integration to the global economy affect patterns of social provision at the local level? This study investigates the impact of economic openness on the subnational variation of welfare provision in China. Examining welfare expansion as a political response to provincial economic integration, I analyze how the effect of globalization on welfare expansion is conditioned by the threat of social unrest. Using a panel dataset on 31 provinces in China from 2001 to 2015, I find that provinces with open economies and higher threat of social unrest provide broader social insurance coverage. On the other hand, provinces with similar levels of economic openness but with lower levels of social unrest are associated with lower levels of coverage. These findings suggest that provincial governments may be more likely to utilize social policy instruments to compensate for the social costs of globalization, particularly in cases where exposure to the international market leads to increased social instability and discontent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperation between government and social capital is an important starting point in the supply-side reform of public services. It is also an effective practice in public governance innovation. Based on policy diffusion theory and event history analysis (EHA), this study analyzes panel data from 282 mainland prefecture-level cities in China from 2004–2020 to explore public–private partnerships' critical diffusion factors. The study reveals that motivation factors, resource/obstacle factors, and external factors affect government and social capital cooperation policies to different extents. The main driving forces for local governments to adopt these policies are population size, level of economic development, government financial resources, the learning mechanism, and the imitation mechanism. This study proposes the following arguments: firstly, that the ultimate goal of policy innovation is to solve social contradictions and meet public demand; secondly, that economic resources can help to adopt policy innovation and proper diffusion; thirdly, that the public–private partnership (PPP) model has been continuously developed by using experience from other projects or cities through a learning mechanism; and finally, that policy publicity and public opinion expressed via the mainstream media are not only an inducement for policy innovation and diffusion, but also a powerful guarantee. The experience of local governments in China can help to verify whether the "positive factors" that are traditionally considered to be conducive to the cooperation between the government and social capital are effective, and to reveal the internal logic of the innovation diffusion of public policies of local governments in China from a more multidimensional perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial-temporal variation of the impact of political and social factors such as (Fishing Moratorium, Marine Protected Areas, New Year, and COVID-19) on fishing activities offshore was evaluated based on fishing efforts data by AIS from 2013 to 2020 for China. It is found that the maximum fishing intensity occurs within 20–30 km of the coastline, the area within 40 km of the coastline covers 51% of fishing activities, and within 100 km of the coastline accounts for 92% of fishing activities. From 2013 to 2016, fishing hotspots showed a highly aggregated spread in the Bohai Sea and the East China Sea. Since 2017, China's hot fishing areas have gradually fragmented and southern moved. During the fishing moratorium, the fishing efforts decreased by 51% compared to the pre-moratorium, and after the moratorium, the fishing efforts increased by 81% compared to the pre-moratorium on average. We investigated fishing activities in and around 249 MPAs in China and found that 71% of MPAs are free of fishing, and average fishing intensity across MPAs is 35% lower than not protected areas. Regarding the social events, it is concluded that during the New Year holiday, the fishing efforts and fishing area were reduced by 79% and 73%, respectively, compared to the regular fishing period. The COVID-19 epidemic prompted a decrease in fishing efforts in 2020 for the first time since 2013, with the average fishing efforts in 2020 being 14% and 6% lower than in 2019 and 2017 to 2019, respectively. • The maximum fishing intensity occur between 20-30 km off the coast of China. • 51% and 92% of fishing activities occur within the nearest 40 km and 100 km offshore. • The fishing efforts during the Fishing Moratorium decreased by 51% compared to the pre-FM. • 71% of the Marine Protected Areas were free of fishing. • Fishing efforts plummeted by 79% during the New Year holiday, and the COVID led to a yearly 14% decrease than that in 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public preferences for redistribution are important for policymaking in authoritarian countries such as China, where political legitimacy has relied heavily on improving the population's well-being and is likely to be impaired by growing levels of social inequality. What are ordinary Chinese preferences for government redistribution? Do they differ from the public preferences observed in advanced industrialized economies, or are they similar to those found in other developing or post-communist countries? Drawing on the World Values Survey of China for 1990 to 2012 and a multilevel data analysis, I find that Chinese preferences for government redistribution vary significantly with income, occupation, and place of residence as existing studies of advanced industrialized democracies and other developing countries predict. Moreover, Chinese preferences notably fall along state–private sectoral and labor-market insider–outsider cleavages generated by the country's state socialist legacy and its newly developed market economy. These findings suggest that in contemporary China, multiple social cleavages coexist and interweave in such a way as to fragment society without fracturing it along a single and deep class line. This study helps advance understanding of the societal foundations of redistributive policies and politics in China and in transitional societies with newly developed market economies in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's role as an emerging aid provider and the concept of a social plan in Africa has led to polarised responses in the West. Several say that this "productivist" strategy is much less determined by the concepts of citizenship, legal, social rights, and much more regarding building functions. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the welfare and social policy ideas that characterize Chinese aid in Africa are influencing traditional donors and becoming global. The article utilised a qualitative study that has two main components. First, a comprehensive content analysis of over 50 key Sino-African, Chinese and Western policy documents from 2000 (since cooperation between Beijing and African countries first became institutionalised). Second, there were semi-structured interviews with Chinese, African and Western stakeholders in Addis Ababa, (Ethiopia), who was directly involved in the relationship between China and Africa and related development issues. The result of documentation and interview analyses show that there are currently significant differences between Chinese and Western approaches. China has made much stronger and more explicit links between development aid and economic activity than most Western donors. The aid is usually implemented through specific projects rather than broader programs or policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under authoritarian regimes, citizen-led NGOs such as environmental NGOs (ENGOs) often operate under close scrutiny of the government. While this presents a challenge to a single ENGO, we propose here - in line with existing research on network effects - that there are opportunities for multiple ENGOs to coordinate and thus work in ways that supersede government controls, affect public opinion, and contribute to policy revision and/or creation. In this paper, we specifically examine the possibility that the gamut of citizen-based ENGOs in China are coordinating. Based on network analysis of ENGOs web pages as well as interviews with more than a dozen ENGO leaders between 2014 and 2016, we find that ENGOs have few direct and public connections to each other, but social media sites and personal connections offline provide a crucial function in creating bridges. A closer examination of these bridges reveals, however, that they can be substantive to the environmental discussion or functional to the dissemination of web page information but typically not both. In short, ENGOs in China are not directly connected but rather are connected in a way that responds to the available social media and the government's censorship practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we document basic facts regarding public debates about controversial political issues on Chinese social media. Our documentation is based on a dataset of 13.2 billion blog posts published on Sina Weibo-the most prominent Chinese microblogging platform-during the 2009-2013 period. Our primary finding is that a shockingly large number of posts on highly sensitive topics were published and circulated on social media. For instance, we find millions of posts discussing protests, and these posts are informative in predicting the occurrence of specific events. We find an even larger number of posts with explicit corruption allegations, and that these posts predict future corruption charges of specific individuals. Our findings challenge a popular view that an authoritarian regime would relentlessly censor or even ban social media. Instead, the interaction of an authoritarian government with social media seems more complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Health Policy & Planning is the property of Oxford University Press / USA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

China’s large floating population catalyzes economic development, redistributes the population, and promotes social changes to the social structure, lifestyle patterns, and cultural values. The floating population is a unique group faced with numerous problems stemming from cultural and lifestyle differences. Understanding and visualizing the distributional characteristics and patterns of the floating population is crucial for developing effective social policies. In this study, the origin–destination (OD) map and its adjustment destination–origin (DO) map are used to represent the interprovincial floating population. The OD or DO map can be regarded as a two-level spatial treemap representing the floating population recorded by pairs of locations. In accordance with the different hierarchy of the two-level spatial treemap, the OD and DO are distinguished. The migration volume of the floating population data is represented by the OD and DO maps to find the population’s direction of movement, magnitude, and hot-spots. The migration indicators including migration effectiveness, migration preference indexes, and sex ratios are represented by the OD and DO maps, which assist in to reviewing and studying the deep patterns of floating population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the potential causal relationship(s) between China’s urbanization and income inequality since the start of the economic reform. Based on the economic theory of urbanization and income distribution, we analyze the annual time series of China’s urbanization rate and Gini index from 1978 to 2014. The results show that urbanization has an immediate alleviating effect on income inequality, as indicated by the negative relationship between the two time series at the same year (lag = 0). However, urbanization also seems to have a lagged aggravating effect on income inequality, as indicated by positive relationship between urbanization and the Gini index series at lag 1. Although the link between urbanization and income inequality is not surprising, the lagged aggravating effect of urbanization on the Gini index challenges the popular belief that urbanization in post-reform China generally helps reduce income inequality. At deeper levels, our results suggest an urgent need to focus on the social dimension of urbanization as China transitions to the next stage of modernization. Comprehensive social reforms must be prioritized to avoid a long-term economic dichotomy and permanent social segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies and analyses the formation and evolution of the urban spatial pattern of Harbin, a waterfront city in northern China. Considering the history and culture of this city, as well as the impetus of modern urbanization, and performing Pearson's correlation analysis it is concluded that the modelled social vulnerability score and the flood damage in certain periods are highly correlated. The results indicate, 1. that the change of spatial pattern and the social vulnerability to disasters are in a high coupling relationship, 2) that the social vulnerability is closely related to the terrain of the disaster source, and the urban civilians, handicraftsmen and businessmen in Daoli District and Daowai District of the first stage of terrain are the population with the highest social vulnerability, and 3) that there is no apparently time-varying change of socially vulnerable groups. This paper innovates to combine the research on the dynamic change of the urban spatial pattern and the research on social vulnerability, in order to supplement and perfect the assessment system for social vulnerability influencing factors, and to provide reference for the establishment of the social policy as relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1999 the State Council of the People's Republic of China (PRC) introduced the Regulation on the Minimum Uving Standard Scheme (MLSS, or dibao) for urban residents in China. Policy learning from different parts of the world significandy shaped the formation and expansion of the MLSS, and Chinese social policy researchers have drawn conclusions about the experiences of these multiple regions. Through expert interviews, we discovered that the Chinese social assistance scheme has been influenced by the US ideas of "social investment" and "workfare." Furthermore, the European values of "universal entitlement" and "social citizenship" have also been internalised by the Chinese actors behind the scheme. In addition, Hong Kong's social assistance scheme has inspired Chinese policymakers to explore a model consisting of various categories that target the country's enormous special welfare needs. Thus, scholars and policymakers from China have used values and ideas outside China to create a hybrid model of social assistance that is characterised by broad coverage, a low benefit level, and a highly provincial administrative structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In late 2002, the Chinese government launched an initiative to extend the coverage of health insurance in rural China with the New Rural Cooperative Medical System (NRCMS). It covered all of rural China by 2008 and is being continuously adapted and developed. This study explores two conflicting goals in the policy design: universal coverage and voluntary enrolment. Local governments often faced the problem that only insufficient numbers of villagers were enrolling voluntarily. They developed different strategies to cope with it: Complementary outpatient reimbursement via medical savings accounts (MSAs) effectively transferred villagers' premiums back to them, thus making the NRCMS more attractive. Adapting the premium-collection process to the local context or utilising collusive practices allowed them to pay premiums on behalf of the villagers from the insurance funds. These strategies undermine the effectiveness of the NRCMS as a risk-pooling mechanism, facilitate latent coverage gaps and turn it into a tax-funded service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses new restrictions for domestic and foreign non-government organizations (NGOs) in China and the crackdown on civil society. He argues that such restrictions tend to diminish the space of reformist and moderate NGOs in their expansion efforts and deter prosperity of grassroots civil society members. Also discussed are initiatives of Chinese president Xi Jinping against Western values, detention of activists and varying approaches for political, ethnic and religious NGOs.

The article discusses the legal protection for dead people and outlines the law development for posthumous harm in China.

Welfare state is often perceived as a response to help people coping with shocks caused by economic down turn. However, as argued by Hamnett, welfare state can directly assist economic restructuring. Thus, social policies can be responses to unsatisfied social needs or be proactive measures to push for economic changes. Macau is in a somewhat special position in that policy-makers are aware that the economy has been excessively dependent on the gaming industry. The government prevent it from being hit by recess through economic restructuring. In this paper, we examine the current social spending pattern and the nature of the social security system in Macau and establish that social policy in Macau is largely reactive. To achieve economic restructuring, there needs to be more proactive measures to facilitate human development and more stress on social investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although expected to act as gate-keeping primary care providers, as community health service (CHS) facilities are severely under-utilized; Chinese people in both rural and urban areas used predominantly higher-tier facilities for primary care purpose, with significant financial and outcome consequences. This study intends to explore the determinants of initial utilization of CHS among patients with major non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs) in order to understand the care-seeking behavior among urban and rural residents in South China. Methods: A multi-stage cluster random sampling methodology was adopted to create a sample of 19,466 adults with NCDs from 7,970 urban households and 32,035 adults with NCDs from 3,860 rural households in Guangdong, China. Interviews and physical examinations were conducted in 2010 to collect data on patient characteristics, medical conditions, and awareness and utilization of healthcare. Descriptive analysis and logistic regression analysis were performed to study utilization patterns and the factors associated with the patterns. Results: Prevalence of major NCDs in urban areas was significantly higher than that in rural areas (12.55% vs. 8.70%; p<0.001). Second-tier district hospitals were most preferred for initial consultation (46.05% in rural areas vs. 45.32% in urban areas; p<0.001), followed by tertiary general or specialized hospitals (28.39% in rural areas vs. 33.89% in urban areas; p<0.001). The proportion of patients who had initial use of CHS was relatively low (25.56% in rural areas vs. 20.79% in urban areas; p<0.001). Awareness of self-care and the presence of medical insurance were leading factors associated with first contact of CHS facilities in both urban and rural areas. Conclusion: The study suggests that CHS facilities are not often used as the first contact for patients in both rural and urban areas in south China. Much effect must be made to enhance the gatekeeper system and improve medical insurance coverage in future healthcare reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although China ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control [FCTC] in 2005, the partial ban on tobacco advertising does not cover the internet. Weibo is one of the most important social media channels in China, using a format similar to its global counterpart, Twitter. The Weibo homepage is a platform to present products, brands and corporate culture. There is great potential for the tobacco industry to exploit Weibo to promote products. Methods: Seven tobacco industry Weibo accounts that each had more than 5000 fans were selected to examine the content of Weibos established by tobacco companies or their advertising agents. Results: Of the 12073 posts found on the seven accounts, 92.3% (11143) could be classified into six main themes: traditional culture, popular culture, social and business affairs, advertisement, public relations and tobacco culture. Posts under the theme of popular culture accounted for about half of total posts (49%), followed by ‘advertisement’ and ‘tobacco culture’ (both at 12%), ‘traditional culture’ and ‘public relations’ (both at 11%), and finally ‘social and business affairs’ (5%). 33% of posts included the words ‘cigarette’ or ‘smoking’ and 53% of posts included the tobacco brand name, indicating that tobacco companies carefully construct the topic and content of posts. Conclusions: Weibo is an important new online marketing tool for the Chinese tobacco industry. Tobacco industry use of Weibo to promote brands and normalize smoking subverts China's ratification of the WHO FCTC. Policy to control tobacco promotion needs reforming to address this widespread circumvention of China's tobacco advertising ban. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI), established in 2013 to investigate widespread, systematic, and grave human rights violations in North Korea, has strongly implicated China in North Korea's commission of crimes against humanity because of its forced repatriation of North Korean refugees and asylum-seekers, who are severely punished once returned. China, however, insists that North Koreans exiting without permission are 'economic migrants,' not refugees, and that deportations are essential to maintaining its national security, social order, and border controls, as well as the stability of the Korean Peninsula. Although a preponderance of states at the United Nations have rejected China's position, China has continued to subordinate UN human rights and refugee standards to its immediate political objectives and continues to deny to North Koreans their right to leave their country and seek asylum abroad. As greater international pressure focuses on China's policies and practices, a vigorous international effort is needed to protect North Korean refugees and encourage China to see that its interests may be better served over the longer term by modifying its policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay sketches an array of cultural, political, and bureaucratic mechanisms that mediate the Chinese Communist state's relationship with the major types of social protests, in the process exploring how governance and contention have transformed each other in the past six decades. In particular, it spotlights a noteworthy development in recent years: the increasingly salient market nexus between state and protest. While the regime response of making economic concessions to protesters is hardly unique in the context of China's own past, the transition from top-down mandated concession to pervasive bargaining between the state and protesters is a significant break with past patterns. The negotiability of cash and material rewards insinuates a market logic of governance that is made all the more poignant by the singularly formidable fiscal and infrastructural capacities of the current Chinese regime among its authoritarian counterparts worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China faces major challenges from social instability and general societal disaffection, which have continued to grow even as the economy has developed. In recent years, the Chinese government has tried to address such issues by diverting increasing resources to raising the income of villagers and providing social services to the urban and rural population alike. So why have "mass incidents"--public protests that sometimes turn violent--continued unabated? This article argues that the structure of central-local relations leads local governments to discount the interests of residents on the one hand, and distort central policies to the benefit of the local government on the other. The "party manages the cadres" principle, through which the central government exerts vertical control, prevents horizontal and bottom-up accountability, and thus ends up setting the interests of local cadres against those of local residents. The central government's interest in preserving its own power makes it reluctant to reform the central-local relationship, thus perpetuating crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of Internet activism and Internet control in China is one of mutual adaptation between citizen activists and party authorities. The party-state initially reacted to Internet activism with alarm, but has since built a comprehensive approach combining repressive policing with gentler methods of social management. This approach has evolved in response to the diverse forms of and participants in Internet activism. But the adaptability of the Chinese Internet control regime does not mean that it will root out Internet activism. On the contrary, Internet activism will continue to grow and will itself adapt to the changing forms of control. Comparisons with Russia and the United States highlight how political economy, history, and everyday practice shape the forms of Internet activism and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After rapid changes in social policy and increases in social expenditures over the past five years, many of the uniformly negative assessments of China's record on health care, retirement pensions, and other forms of social security have to be reconsidered. This article examines the rapid expansion in social policy coverage and spending, and considers the possible significance of these changes for Chinese politics. The administrative and territorial categories that have defined access to social welfare provision over the history of the People's Republic of China have not yet receded, but their significance has diminished with programs that create uniform eligibility across rural and urban categories of citizenship. Large gaps in benefits remain, and are likely to generate political demands in the future as urbanization continues to erode the administrative distinctions between urban and rural. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looking into the near future, China faces immense demographic challenges. Prolonged subreplacement fertility has created irreversible conditions for rapid aging of the population, and massive migration to cities has left many villages populated by elderly farmers with no adult children to support them. Soaring divorce rates and high levels of residential dislocation have eroded family stability. To a large extent, government policies created to accelerate economic growth inadvertently fostered these demographic challenges, and now the country is facing the negative consequences of interventions that previously spurred double-digit growth. Legacies of Confucian familism initially blunted pressures on families. Filial sons and daughters sent back remittances, parents cared for migrants' children and invested in their children's marriages, and families with four grandparents, two parents, and one child (4+2+1) pooled resources to continuously improve a family's material well-being. But now the demographic challenges have further intensified and the question arises: can the state adopt new policies that will allow the prototypical 4+2+1 families created by the one-child policy to thrive through 2030? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connectivity with others is among the basic requirements of human beings, societies and nations. It has been present, and continues to expand, in form and substance. Things are being shaped up quite rapidly with the advancement in information and communication technologies. In the particular context of China and South Asian countries, while physical connectivity and the development of related infrastructure - roads and railways, bridges, pipelines, and communication lines etc. - remain the important element in improving the relationship, more vital is to focus on soft i.e. non-physical aspects of connectivity; policies, procedures and rules. Thus, a favorable regulatory mechanism with regard to the movement of people, goods, finances as well as information is required. On a greater level, mental, political and social connectivity between the people, is a prerequisite. This, in turn, would provide a lasting and sustainable foundation for good relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]