Towards a Society with Social Protection for All : A Concise History of Social Security Transformation in Modern China

218 Pages·2017·2.149 MB·English

by  Hui, Jia, Zhou, Hong

China Insights
Hong Zhou
Towards a
Society with
Social Protection
for All
A Concise History of Social Security
Transformation in Modern China
China Insights
Chairman of Editorial Board
Wang Weiguang
Vice Chairman of Editorial Board
Li Jie, Li Yang (Standing Executive), Li Peilin, Cai Fang
Editorial Board Members
Bu Xianqun, Cai Fang, Gao Peiyong, Hao Shiyuan, Huang Ping, Jin Bei, Li Jie,
Li Lin, Li Peilin, Li Yang, Ma Yuan, Wang Lei, Wang Weiguang, Wang Wei,
Yang Yi, Zhou Hong, Zhao Jianying, Zhuo Xinping
This book series collects and presents cutting-edge studies on various issues that
have emerged during the process of China’s social and economic transformation,
and promotes a comprehensive understanding of the economic, political, cultural
andreligiousaspectsofcontemporaryChina.Itbringstogetheracademicendeavors
by contemporary Chinese researchers in various social science and related fields
that record, interpret and analyze social phenomena that are unique to Chinese
society, its reforms and rapid transition. This series offers a key English-language
resource for researchers and students in China studies and related subjects, as well
asforgeneralinterestreaderslookingtobettergrasptoday’sChina.Thebookseries
isacooperationprojectbetweenSpringerandChinaSocialSciencePressofChina.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13591
Hong Zhou
Towards a Society
with Social Protection for All
A Concise History of Social Security
Transformation in Modern China
123
Hong Zhou
ChineseAcademy of Social Sciences
Beijing
China
Translated byJiaHui
ISSN 2363-7579 ISSN 2363-7587 (electronic)
ChinaInsights
ISBN978-981-10-4668-1 ISBN978-981-10-4669-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4669-8
JointlypublishedwithChinaSocialSciencesPress
TheprinteditionisnotforsaleinTheMainlandofChina.CustomersfromTheMainlandofChinaplease
ordertheprintbookfrom:ChinaSocialSciencesPress.
ThisbookispublishedwithfinancialsupportfromChineseFundfortheHumanitiesandSocialSciences.
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017945692
©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.andChinaSocialSciencesPress2017
Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublishers,whetherthewholeorpart
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar
methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfrom
therelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse.
Thepublishers,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationinthis
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishers nor the
authorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedhereinor
for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publishers remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations.
Printedonacid-freepaper
ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbySpringerNature
TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.
Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:152BeachRoad,#21-01/04GatewayEast,Singapore189721,Singapore
Series Foreword
SincetheOpiumWar,modernChinadevelopedthroughWestern-Chineseascome
under attack and been bullied for its backwardness; this cultural circumstance has
given many Chinese people a psychological inferiority complex, as China has
laggedbehindothercountriestechnologically,institutionallyandculturally.Efforts
tochangethesituationinwhichWesterncountrieswerestrongbutChinawasweak
andtorevitalizeChinaneededtostartwithculturalcriticismandculturerenovation.
Therefore, the Chinese people turned their eyes to the outside world and learned
from Japan, Europe, the USA, and even Soviet Russia. We have always been
overwhelmed by stress and anxiety and have had a burning desire to reverse the
state of being bullied as a result of underdevelopment, poverty, and weakness and
to catch up with and surpass the Western powers. In pursuing the more than
one-hundred-year-olddreamofbuildingapowerfulcountryandrevivingChina,we
have focusedon understanding andlearningfrom others,butseldom,if ever, have
others learned from and understood us. This has not greatly changed in the course
ofmodernizationsinceChina’sreformandopeningupin1978.Thetranslationand
introduction of many Western works in the 1980s and 1990s is a very good
example. This is the history of the Chinese people’s understanding of the rela-
tionship between China and the rest of the world since the beginning of modern
times.
At the same time, in pursuing the dream of turning China into a powerful
country and rejuvenating it through material (technological) criticism, institutional
criticismandculturalcriticism,theChinesepeoplehavestruggledtofindapaththat
would make the country prosperous and the people strong while preventing the
country from being ruined and the race from being destroyed. This path first rep-
resents a thought, a banner, and a soul. The key issue has been what kind of
thought,bannerandsoulcansavethecountry,makingitprosperousandthepeople
strong. For more than one hundred years, the Chinese people have constantly
carried outexperiments andattempts amidsthumiliation,failure andanxiety. They
haveexperiencedfailureinadoptingadvancedWesterntechnologyandthoughton
the basis of safeguarding China’s feudal system and practicing a constitutional
monarchy after the collapse of the Western capitalist political path and a great
v
vi SeriesForeword
setback in worldwide socialism in the early 1990s. The Chinese people ultimately
embarkedonapathtowardsasuccessfulrevolutionwithnationalindependenceand
liberation; in particular, they have adopted a path leading to the socialist modern-
ization of China—a road towards socialism with Chinese characteristics—by
combining the theoretical logic of scientific socialism with the historical logic of
China’s social development. After more than 30 years of reform and opening up,
China’ssocialistmarketeconomyhasrapidlydeveloped;tremendousachievements
have been made in economic, political, cultural and social constructions; compre-
hensive national strength, cultural soft power and international influence have
substantially improved; and a great success has been achieved in socialism with
Chinesecharacteristics.Althoughthelatterprojecthasnotyetbecomefull-fledged,
its systems and institutions have basically taken shape. After more than one hun-
dredyearsofpursuingdreams,Chinaisrisingamongthenationsoftheworldwith
a greater degree of confidence in the path it has chosen, the theory it has adopted
and the institutions it has created.
Meanwhile, we should be aware that given the long-standing cognition and
cultural psychology of learning from Western countries, we seldom take the ini-
tiative in showcasing ourselves—historical China and current China in reality—to
the world, though China has emerged as a great world power. Due to a deeply
rooted view that “Western countries are strong and China is weak,” developed
through Western-Chinese cultural exchanges, Western people and nations seldom
have a sense ofChinesehistoryor the currentdevelopmentsin China, let alone an
understanding of China’s developmental path and such in-depth issues as the sci-
entificity and effectiveness of China’s theory and institutions or their unique value
forandcontributionstohumancivilization.Asself-recognitionisnotdisplayed,the
“China Collapse Theory,” “China Threat Theory,” “China State Capitalism,” and
otherso-calledtheoriescoinedbycertainpeoplewithulteriormotivesanddiffering
political views have been widely spread.
Duringourdevelopment,basedon“crossingtheriverbyfeelingthestones”,we
have paid attention to learning from Western countries, understanding the world
andlearningtoknowourselvesthroughWesternexperienceanddiscoursebuthave
neglected self-recognition and efforts to let others know us. When we strive to
become part of the world in a more tolerant and friendly way, we are not objec-
tively, truly understood. Therefore, we should describe the path to the success of
socialism with Chinese characteristics, tell Chinese stories, disseminate Chinese
experiences, use international expressions to show a real China to the world, and
help people around the world realize that the Western manner of modernization is
not the endpoint of human historical evolution and that socialism with Chinese
characteristics is also a valuable treasure of human thought. This is undoubtedly a
very important task for an academic cultural researcher with a sense of justice and
responsibility.
In this connection, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences organized its
top-notch experts and scholars and several external experts to write the China
Insightsseries. Thisseries notonly provides anoverviewofChina’spath, theories
and institutions but also objectively describes China’s current development in the
SeriesForeword vii
areas of political institutions, human rights, the rule of law, the economic system,
finance, social governance, social security, population policies, values, religious
faith, ethnic policies, rural issues, urbanization, industrialization, ecology, ancient
civilization, literature, art, etc., thus depicting China in a way that helps readers
visualize these topics.
Wehopethatthisserieswillhelpdomesticreadersmorecorrectlyunderstandthe
course of the more than 100 years of China’s modernization and more rationally
look at current difficulties, enhance the urgency for and national confidence in
comprehensively intensifying reform, build a consensus on reform and develop-
ment and gather strength in this regard, as well as deepen foreign readers’ under-
standing of China, thus fostering a better international environment for China’s
development.
January 2014 Zhao Jianying
Foreword
People in the twenty-first century could hardly imagine that the social ideal put
forward by Karl Marx 130 years ago—From each according to his ability, to each
accordingtohisneeds,hasmovedprogressiveyouthsandrevolutionariesofChina
and other countries so much in the past century that they were devoted to trans-
forming the old society and building the new one.
Didtheysucceed?Iftheydid,howdidtheyachieveit,throughvigorousormild
social reforms? And what are the lessons we can learn from this process?
Following the ideal of “from each according to his ability, to each according to
his needs,” people working for social progress and justice have tried numerous
institutionalinnovationandpolicyreforms.Thisbookwillintroducehowhavethey
achieved the social security for all step by step in order to protect laborers’ rights
and interests.
ix
Acknowledgements
To write a book about development history of social security, that is, to tell
how China’s social security system was established and how it developed, is my
“avocation dream” for so many years. This dream cannot be realized without
encouragement and support from my friends and colleagues inside and outside of
thisfield.Andhere,IwouldliketoparticularlythankTianXiaobao,formerdirector
ofChinaInstitute of LaborandSocial Security, for his sincere encouragementand
great support, which are necessary for me.
I worked with Tian Xiaobao from mid-1980s, when people forged ahead with
reforms and ideals, when people were in pursuit of genuine knowledge. That era
broughtupagenerationthatworkedselflesslyforaricherandfairerChina.Atthat
time, I made efforts to introduce social security experience of other countries to
China, by translating relevant documents for a professor delegation of the Heller
School, Brandies University, who visited China. While Mr. Tian, working for the
Ministry of Labor, was responsible for receiving and contacting foreign visitors,
including professors from the Heller School. Since then, I helped Mr. Tian to
organizetrainingprogramsabroadforhisChinaAssociationforLaborStudies,and
thuspromotedthespreadofsocialsecurityknowledge.SinceIcamebackChinato
work,IhavealsobeeninvitedtoparticipateindiscussionsandresearchesinChina
InstituteofLaborandSocialSecurity.Throughtheaboveexperiences,Ihavesome
understandingaboutChina’sreformonsocialsecuritysystem.Lastyear,whenIno
longer worked asdirector of Institute ofEuropean Studies ofChinese Academy of
Social Sciences, I expressed my wish to write a book, which was applauded by
Mr.Tian.Henotonlyprovidedenormousrelevantdocuments,contactedMs.Wang
Jianlun, former Vice Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, but also
read our book, pointed out highlights and problems, and even edited it earnestly.
Although Mr. Tian declined to the authorship, he is still worth it for his great
support.
Hereby, Ialsowouldliketothank Ms.ZhangJunforherinvolvement. Tohelp
me pursue my “avocation,” she put aside her work and fully supported me for
months. In this book, I was responsible for choosing topics, designing and writing
xi