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This study is set out against the broader socio‐political economy context, in which China searches for better social governance to improve service delivery catering to the soaring demand on social care in the Bohai Bay Economic Rim (BBER). BBER is one of China's industrial bases and currently an emerging economic powerhouse in Northern China, rivalling the Pearl River Delta in the south and Yangtze River Delta in the east. On the bases of policy reviews and in‐depth interviews with government officials, social welfare experts, and managers and social workers of non‐governmental organisations (NGOs), this research contributes to an improved understanding of social governance reforms in China through the welfare contracting, development trends and implementation challenges and changing state–NGO relationships. Empirical data have shown that the success of governance reforms in the BBER area depends heavily on personal relationships rather than organisational reforms. Local officials have successfully maintained strong discretion and intervention through a top‐down and authoritarian approach in welfare contracting, whilst they allocated resources to a circle of acquaintances in the manner of market exchange but without the substance of competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's practice of contracting out social services raises two related questions. The first one seeks to determine "the contractual relationship" between the Chinese government and its third sector in a mixed welfare regime. The second one inquires whether China's commissioning welfare strategy has increased the power of its civil society. This study attempts to address these two issues based on the experiences of non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) in a Chinese city. It was found that the contracted NGOs were unable to obtain an equal status but were treated as assistants of local governments. The NGOs were also asked to do extra work that was not listed in the service contracts. Moreover, the service performance assessment criteria were unable to accurately evaluate the work of NGOs. Thus, the welfare participation of Chinese NGOs has not brought with them more political power. It is proposed that China's welfare reform needs to be backed up by its legal reform to put in place a mechanism that tackles the unequal power distribution between welfare purchasers and welfare providers. The study further illustrates that the Chinese government has adopted a pragmatic instrumentalism strategy by placing NGOs in a supplementary and subordinate role. This paper offers a conceptual discourse on analysing the state‐NGOs relationship against China's market reform and its search for a better welfare management strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews administrative issues in the context of decentralized social protection in China. In particular, what are the main obstacles to expanding social insurance coverage for workers in the informal economy? Over the last two decades, China has achieved remarkable progress toward universal social protection when this target was set as a national policy priority. However, the social insurance enrolment of informal economy workers still lags significantly behind. This article reviews the application of the International Labour Organization's definition of informality in the Chinese context and overviews existing pension and health insurances in China. This article discusses the impact of China's inter‐governmental fiscal relations and decentralized social protection in the multilevel government system. The article highlights that under a system of decentralized managed social insurance many informal economy workers choose to opt out of the system because of low benefits and high compliance costs. This result in deficits in social insurance coverage amongst informal economy workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has adopted purchase of services to facilitate the development of the societal sector, including social organisations, the social work profession and social services. Project-based and post-based purchases are two typical policy designs. Why do the local states develop two different designs to serve similar intentions? The answers to this question contribute to the broader discussion of policymaking and social development in China. Using the intention-capacity analytic framework, this study systemically compares Guangzhou's project-based model and Shenzhen's post-based model by drawing upon an extensive review of policy and archive documents, key informant interviews and field observations. The comparative study suggests that a pro-market ideology and incomplete analytical capacity in policy learning directed the design thinking towards market mechanism and purchase of services. Without the organisational conditions of social organisation and social work in Guangzhou, rapid growth in the social work workforce became the top priority in Shenzhen. Meanwhile, the trustworthiness of newly developing social organisations is another concern. All of these concerns underpinned the post-based design. Both models, with substantial fiscal support, succeed in expanding the societal sectors. But the mix of market and hierarchy tools, for the post-based model in particular, is an obstacle in further enabling social organisation and the social work profession. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]