Correct Ideas and Social Security Reform in China: the Case of Shanghai’s Township Insurance

A diverse range of social security, social insurance and social protection schemes have emerged in China in recent years. International Labour Organization definitions for these terms are as follows: Social security refers to the protection which society provides its members through a series of public measures: (a) to offset the absence of substantial reduction of income from work resulting from various contingencies (notably sickness, maternity, employment injury, invalidity and old age); (b) to provide people with healthcare; and (c) to provide benefits for families with children. This definition of social security includes social insurance (i.e. contributory schemes), social assistance (i.e. tax-financed benefits provided only to those on low incomes) and universal benefits (i.e. tax-financed benefits, provided without being income tested). Social protection includes not only public social security schemes, but also private or non-statutory schemes with a similar objective, such as mutual benefit schemes and occupational pension schemes (ILO, 2000, pp.29-30). * Monash University. Forthcoming in Ingrid Nielsen and Russell Smyth, Migration and Social Protection (World Scientific, Singapore). The research in this paper was supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP0561084). We thank Chris Nyland for discussions in the course of writing this paper and Xiaolei Qian for research assistance. © 2007 Gloria Davies, Ingrid Nielsen and Russell Smyth All rights reserved. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author CORRECT IDEAS AND SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM IN CHINA: THE CASE OF SHANGHAI’S TOWNSHIP INSURANCE