Brad Herbert - Is Reform on the Horizon for China’s Weak Social Safety Net?

 Democracy in Europe brought about its welfare state, but the ruling class conceded so easily as it was fearful of communism and the Soviet Union. They also felt that the working class were not fit enough to fight wars because of their malnutrition and ill health, so they conceded to the NHS as well. These two reforms did make the working class much fitter and healthier, and they really improved our quality of life, but some of the Chinese elite do not feel such reforms are needed in their country.

This article as argues that such reforms are needed in China, and some are on the horizon, but the Chinese leadership are more interested in spending on the Belt Road, the military, the infrastructure in other countries, and robotics. Many poor people have been crushed by the pandemic, and without welfare reforms they could be further crushed in the future. Such reforms are coming, but are they enough? But there are also concerns that the Chinese economy could suffer in the long run without enough automatic stabilisers, like sufficient social security. 

While the COVID pandemic has impacted people in every corner of the world, not everyone has suffered equally from the subsequent global recession. As bills go unpaid and evictions loom large, nearly 56.2 million Americans have filed for unemployment since the onset of the crisis. The financial burden has fallen disproportionately on working-class people, particularly those serving as “essential workers.” Given the widespread mismanagement of COVID in the US, many observers have pointed to China’s extreme lockdowns, which – despite the initial coverup in Wuhan back in January – have been largely successful in mitigating spread and preventing economic collapse, as further proof of Beijing’s ongoing attention to the crisis. But despite Beijing’s use of such authoritarian control measures and its general view of itself being a nominally socialist country that champions workers’ rights, its most vulnerable workers have also suffered tremendous hardship under the pandemic’s economic fallout.

CIS

https://www.csis.org/blogs/new-perspectives-asia/reform-horizon-chinas-weak-social-safety-net