China's Social System and Social

Governance
——from the Perspective of Chinese-style Modernization

YANG Dian
Institute of Sociology
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
April 20, 2022
Major issues
1. China Miracle: high economic growth and long term social stability
2. China’s social system and social governance play a big role in social stability and
lay the foundation for high economic growth
3. China’s political, economic and social systems are very different from those of
the West, because China takes a different road to modernization
4. Chinese-style modernization: why, what, how
5. The modernization of social governance system is an important component of
Chinese-style modernization
6. China’s social governance: goals, institutional pattern and distinctive feature
7. China’s social welfare and inclusive development: pension, medical insurance,
housing, education, anti-poverty
8. Great social projects: targeted poverty alleviation(精准扶贫）, rural
revitalization（乡村振兴）, common prosperity（共同富裕） 2
Major issues
1. China Miracle: high economic growth and long term social stability
2. China’s social system and social governance play a big role in social stability and
lay the foundation for high economic growth
3. China’s political, economic and social systems are very different from those of
the West, because China takes a different road to modernization
4. Chinese-style modernization: why, what, how
5. The modernization of social governance system is an important component of
Chinese-style modernization
6. China’s social governance: goals, institutional pattern and distinctive feature
7. China’s social welfare and inclusive development: pension, medical insurance,
housing, education, anti-poverty
8. Great social projects: targeted poverty alleviation(精准扶贫）, rural
revitalization（乡村振兴）, common prosperity（共同富裕） 3
Major issues
1. China Miracle: high economic growth and long term social stability
2. China’s social system and social governance play a big role in social stability and
lay the foundation for high economic growth
3. China’s political, economic and social systems are very different from those of
the West, because China takes a different road to modernization
4. Chinese-style modernization: why, what, how
5. The modernization of social governance system is an important component of
Chinese-style modernization
6. China’s social governance: goals, institutional pattern and distinctive feature
7. China’s social welfare and inclusive development: pension, medical insurance,
housing, education, anti-poverty
8. Great social projects: targeted poverty alleviation(精准扶贫）, rural
revitalization（乡村振兴）, common prosperity（共同富裕） 4
China's nominal GDP trend from 1952 to 2015
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in China (2007-2015)

1,815 × 1,195
20 Countries with the Largest GDP 2016
Billion USD
The Typology of Modernization(not one size fits all)

• Two paths to modernization: capitalist modernization and socialist

modernization.
• Three types of capitalist modernization: market-dominated modernization,
state-led modernization and coordinated modernization.
• Two types of socialist modernization : Chinese-style modernization and
Soviet-style modernization.
• Socialist modernization is more suitable for late-developing countries.
• Modernization is a process that occurred first in Western countries due to
some contingent factors, and modernization is not equal to Westernization.
Chinese-style modernization is perfectly feasible, both practically and
theoretically.
9
 • Hard Cases Questioning Western-centric Modernization and Development

 Four Asian Tigers

Many countries have modernized, or are modernizing,
through different economic, political or social means.

 China
Sharply different institutional arrangements and historical
cultural traditions from the West, but achieved the same even
higher efficiency and modernization.
• Multiple models of capitalism (varieties of capitalism)
• Multiple models of socialism

1. USSR
2. China
3. Middle and Eastern European Countries
4. Vietnam
5. North Korea
6. Cuba

 High growth and modernization are not miracles: USA 1865-1895; USSR 1928-1960s;
Japan and Germany 1945-1965

 The Miracle is China’s different path(soft facts) to modernization(hard facts)

 Pose challenges to modernization theory, free market theory, classical socialism theories,
development theories (Chinese-style modernization)
The Road to Modernization: Capitalism vs. Socialism
• Capitalist Modernization: Britain, the United States, France and other early
modernizing countries.
• Socialist Modernization: China, the Soviet Union and other late-modernizing
countries.
• The middle-income trap and social turmoil of some capitalist late-modernizers.
• The fast modernization of socialist modernizers such as USSR and China.
• The socialist modernization path is more suitable for late-developing countries.
Firstly, socialist modernization helps give full play to the positive effects of capital (conducive to technological
progress and wealth accumulation), and restraining its negative effects (inequality and externalities); Secondly,
among all kinds of states, socialist states have the strongest government capacity, which is conducive to
concentrating manpower, material resources, financial resources and technology to do great projects, and easier to
realize the catch-up and rapid development of modernization. 13
14
15
16
17
Stages of Modernization(not one stage forever)
The first wave: industrialization, urbanization, democratization, secularization;
UK- led.
The second wave: informatization, globalization, financialization; the US-led.
The third wave: intelligentization, such as big data, artificial intelligence(AI),
cloud computing, blockchain ……; China-US competition for AI supremacy
modernization is not a static state once and for all, but a dynamic process of
continuous evolution. Western countries such as Britain and the United States
were in the leading position in the first and second waves of modernization, but
it doesn't mean that they will always be in the leading position. 18
The Essential Feature of Chinese modernization: Common
Prosperity
Deng Xiaoping believed that the essence of socialism is “common
prosperity”, and that public ownership/private ownership, planned
economy/market economy, and distribution according to labor/factors are just
some means of economic development. Therefore, whether or not a society is
a "socialist society" is not determined by whether or not public ownership,
planned economy, or distribution according to labor is practiced, but by
whether or not "common prosperity" can ultimately be achieved.

CCP and People-centered development ideology

19
Ten characteristics of Chinese modernization
1. Modernization with super scale and fast speed. 1.25 billion high-
income(12.7k)population in 2020, 16.59% of global population; China 1.4
billion, 18.3% of global population (12.5k $ in 2021;17.7T GDP).
40 years vs. hundreds of years
2. Long-term social stability
3. All-round modernization: Industrial modernization, agricultural
modernization, national defense modernization, science and technology
modernization and modernization of the national governance system and
governance capacity.
The modernization of social governance system is a key component

20
Ten characteristics of China’s modernization
4. Industrialization model: light + heavy industries; domestic investment+
export orientation; urban industrial parks + rural industrialization.
5. Urbanization model: bidirectional urbanization (rural industry-
driven/bottom-up + big city driven/top-down) ; market + government dual-
wheel driven, local governments play a big role by building development zones
and new city centers.
6. Tight control over strategic industries such as finance, land, communications,
defense, etc. while emphasizing technological innovation (information
technology and intelligence).
7. Market entities and property rights system: state-owned, private, foreign
firms, household production, etc., mixed ownership (macro mixed + micro
mixed). 21
Ten characteristics of China's modernization
8. Full play of the integrated advantages of the state, market and society: strong
government role while focusing on market and social dynamics to compensate for
government failure, market failure and social failure.
9. Peaceful development: no foreign colonial expansion and war, a process of domestic
migration (rural migrant workers), urban-rural equilibrium, and global expansion mainly
through market means, not military expansion. actively promoted the building of a
community with a shared future for mankind.
10. Traditional culture promotion: Chinese traditional culture is not contradictory to
modernization, with its emphasis on education and social relations, social networks(human
capital and social capital), which have positive effects on economic development and social
governance.
22
The future agenda of China's modernization
1. Pushing forward rural revitalization
2. Achieving common prosperity
3. Leading intelligentization
4. Effectively responding to financialization
5. Green and low-carbon development. We should actively address
global climate change and strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions
before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 to make a
positive contribution to humanity.
Chinese Road to Modernization and Globalization (open and shared
Development, from zero-sum game to win-win prosperous community
with common destiny, both domestically and internationally) 23
China’s social governance system
1. Goals: maintain social order and social harmony, keep social dynamic
2. Principle: “build a social governance pattern of co-construction, co-
governance and sharing”.
3. Institutional arrangement: party committee leadership, government
responsibility, democratic consultation, social coordination, public
participation, legal protection, science and technology support.
4. Enhance the socialization, legalization, intelligentization and
professionalization of social governance
5. Community governance and danwei(单位）system coexist.

24
China’s social welfare and inclusive development
1. High economic growth and people centered development ideology
2. Inclusive development: social security, jobs, income, housing,
education, health and medical insurance, anti-poverty
3. Great social projects: targeted poverty alleviation(精准扶贫）, rural
revitalization（乡村振兴）, common prosperity（共同富裕）

4. Targeted poverty alleviation as the first step to China’s

modernization drive; Completing the Building of a Moderately
Prosperous Society in All Respects（全面建成小康社会）

25
Income Inequality by Gini Coefficient, 1980-2005
0.5

0.47
0.465
0.45 0.45
0.44 0.435
0.433
0.42
0.415 0.4160.417
0.4 0.3980.3980.403
0.39

0.36 0.362
0.35 0.349 0.348
0.343
0.333
0.32
0.314
0.3
0.288
0.272
0.257
0.25

0.2
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
President Xi’s New Thought on Anti-Poverty（Nov. 2013）
Targeted Poverty Alleviation
• Targeted poverty alleviation illustrates the people-centered development thought,
and demonstrates the essential requirement of socialism—achieving common
prosperity.

• President Xi Jinping regards poverty alleviation as a key issue concerning the

political direction, the fundamental system and the development path of the party
and the state, poverty alleviation has become the bottom line goal of building a
well-off society in an all-round way by 2020.

Targeted Poverty Alleviation and The Chinese Dream

• Chinese Dream is everyone’s dream, no one left behind, even the poorest and the
most disadvantaged.

• Ensure that all the Chinese people share the achievements of the reform and
development.
Changes in income inequality in China as a whole 1981-2012
Income Inequality by Gini Coefficient, 2006-2016
In 2008, China reached a score of 49.1 (0.491) points.
Urban-rural income gap in China 1978-2012
Poverty Population based on Purchasing Power Parity (1981-2011)
Rural Poverty Population (million)

Year 2005 PPP 2 USD

Year 2005 PPP 1.25 USD

Data from data.worldbank.org

Poverty Incidence (1981-2011)
Poverty Incidence (%)

Year 2005 PPP 2 USD

Year 2005 PPP 1.25 USD

Data from data.worldbank.org

 Poverty Alleviation in China: Five Stages
Poverty alleviation through fiscal
funds for 567 key counties
• 1986 Impoverished Area Economic
Development Leading Group of the
State Council
Poverty alleviation through helping both
absolute-poverty and low-income people in 148
thousand villages
• 2001 National Program for Rural Poverty Alleviation
(2001-2010)

1978- 1986- 1994- 2001-

2013-
1985 1993 2000 2011

Poverty reduction through

household contract
responsibility system to solve
subsistence problem in rural
areas
Poverty alleviation through Poverty alleviation through targeted
covering 592 key counties and measures
forging local empowerment • 2013 Opinions on the Innovation of
projects Mechanisms to Make Steady Progress in
• 1994 Seven-Year Priority Rural Poverty Alleviation
Poverty Alleviation Program • 2013 Requirements on Establishing
Mechanisms for Targeted Poverty Alleviation
What is Targeted-Poverty-Alleviation Policy?
• Database of personal records
ATPE System • Identify individuals as target subjects
(3+5+5+3) • Match impoverished ones with applicable standards

• Assistance on economic production

Accurate Identification • Removal and relocation
• Ecological refunds
• Education and training
Targeted Support
• Social relief

Precise Management • Find out the right target

• Arrange the right project
• Support reaches the right household
• Send the right assistants according to each cases
Elaborate Assessment • Design the right goal considering the diversity

• Monitor and examine the impoverished counties

• Monitor and examine the impoverished households
• Monitor and examine the impoverished population
Why Targeted-Poverty-Alleviation Policy?

1 Increasing Complexity of Causes for Poverty

15.11%
Diseases
22.88%
Disability
27.71%
Education

Disasters

23.90% Skill and Labor

Shortage
2.88%
Fund Shortage
4.69%
Other causes
2.83%

Data from State Council

Leading Group Office of
Poverty Alleviation and
Development
2 Dispersive Distribution of impoverished people

Per Capital (RMB） Per Capital (RMB）

missing missing

Urban per capita Net Income 2013 Rural per capita Net Income 2013
 3 Diminishing marginal benefit of
traditional poverty-alleviation Poverty Incidence (1981-2011)
policy Poverty Incidence (%)

Poverty Population based on Purchasing Power

Parity (1981-2011)
Rural Poverty Population (million)

Year 2005 PPP 2 USD

Year 2005 PPP 1.25 USD
New Features of Targeted Poverty-Alleviation

1 Organize Third-Party Evaluation Projects

2 Establish Research Centers on Targeted Poverty Alleviation

3 Develop specific network technology and big data for poverty alleviation

4 Design scientific measures and indexes on poverty alleviation

5 Internet + poverty alleviation

How does the Traditional System work?

Central Government

Local Government
Corporations Social Organizations

Infrastructure Resource Delivery

Donations Low-Interest Loan
Construction and Skill Training

Impoverished Counties and Villages

How does the ATPE system work?
Innovative Technology Sustains the whole ATPE!

Big Data and Cloud Computing

IT and IoT • Accurate Identification &
• Industry + Anti-poverty Personalized Programs via Digital
• E-Commerce Government Tools

Internet and Social Media

• Online Resource Access &
Workshop

Corporation NGO
 Big Data and Cloud Computing
• Accurate Identification & Personalized Programs via Digital Tools

Step 1：Generate database and multi-

dimensional quantitative index
automatically to identify impoverished
family and individuals accurately.
Government
Step 2: Analyze the poverty reason of
each case and personalized anti-
poverty plan.

Step 3: Monitor the whole process of

assistance giving and receiving via API.

Step 4: Evaluate the impact of anti-

poverty plan by data collection and
analysis.
 IT and IoT
• Industry plus Anti-poverty E-Commerce

Online e-commerce platforms provide channels

for impoverished areas to sell their local products,
thus effectively bringing more income to the poor
households.

E-commerce actively expands the anti-poverty

Corporation
model integrating “e-commerce, enterprises and
households” in an effort to address difficulties in
sales of agricultural products and poor recognition
of good products in the poverty-stricken areas.

E-business enlarges offline featured-goods

production into local industries and local
enterprises that create jobs, increase income, and
organize poor household as a productive
community.
 Internet and Social Media
• Online Resource Access & Workshop

The overall lag in rural development in China was caused

by "loss of connectivity." Mobile Clients and Apps guide
villagers and village managers to communicate with each
other, participant in public affairs, and advertise their own
resources through mobile internet, clients, and apps.
NGO
Training and workshop can be accessed through mobile
clients as long as villagers have a mobile phone and
particular Apps.

Open platform digitalizes some public service and make

education, health, and employment welfare more efficient
and accessible.

Platform encourage each village to register their own

account that enable them to share information, post
advertisement, initiate group online discussion, and
communicate with the outside world.
Case1: Jingdong & Anti-poverty E-Commerce

Since 2016, more than 6,000 suppliers in impoverished areas have

cooperated with Jingdong to sell 3 million goods online, and
reached total sales of 20 billion yuan. More than 200,000 poor
people increase income by 2,000 to 3,000 yuan.

• Poverty-Alleviation Channel of E-Commerce

All goods are produced by merchants from nationally
poverty-stricken counties: local food, traditional handicraft,
household appliances, tourism.
• Online Financial Support
--Loan service for peasants and agriculture-related enterprises
--Jingdong crowd fund-raising through internet
 • Financial and industrial integration of poverty reduction
-- “Running Chicken” Project (跑步鸡)
-- “Swimming Duck” Project（游水鸭）

1 Running Chicken
• The whole backyard chicken, stroll in the woods, to run 1
million steps to slaughter.
• Each chicken in the ankle are wearing a pedometer, chicken
walk many steps a day
• About 6 months, 180 days before slaughter, slaughter a chicken
at about 3 pounds.
• Jingdong running chicken is expensive, but very popular. City
consumers love this healthy, organic food, especially good for
pregnant women.
• Running chicken project was initiated in Wuyi County in Hebei
Province, then expanded to Hebei Fuping County.
2 Swimming Duck

• 2017, Jingdong Fresh "swimming duck park" built 2 km away

from Hongze Lake, an area of about 120 acres, divided into
four regions.

• In order to ensure that every duck has enough "leisure" space,

Jingdong Fresh ensures that the number of ducks per
mu(about 666 square meters) does not exceed 60.

• The large area of water and the live water inflow from Hongze
Lake can meet the demand of "swimming ducks" for free
feeding.
 Case2: Alibaba & Taobao Village
Taobao Village refers to a village, whose number of active online shops reached 10% of local
households, and e-commerce transactions reached 10 million yuan a year.

As of the end of August 2016, a total of 1,311 Taobao villages were found across China, which are widely
distributed in 18 provinces. Especially, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces come as the top
three in China in terms of the number of Taobao villages.

Mostly concentrated in relatively developed

provinces with a track record of high-level private
entrepreneurship. Rural e-commerce in the inland
provinces is challenging due to inadequate basic
infrastructure, remoteness from traditional
industrial hubs, and inability to attract talent.

As of 2016, only 3% (18 out of 592) of national-

level Impoverished Counties have Taobao
Villages.
Taobao villages are an important part of Alibaba’s rural strategy, which is in the structure of “dual
cores + N”.
“Dual cores” refer to rural Taobao and Taobao villages, and “N” refers to a wide range of
agriculture-related business on the platforms of Alibaba, such as Taobao agriculture, Taobao
University, miao.tmall.com, Taobao agricultural materials,
mantianxing.taobao.com, ye.1688.com, etc
4 Breakthroughs of Taobao Village

1. Product innovation.
In 2015, more than 120 categories of emerging products of Taobao villages recorded rapid growth
in sales, which exceeded RMB1 million or even RMB10 million for certain products.

2. Online merchant enterprization.

With the expansion of operation scale, some online merchants of Taobao villages grow into
enterprises by registering companies and trademarks, and attach great importance to team building,
brand and customer service.

3. E-commerce service systematization.

With the development and expansion of online merchants, their demands for E-commerce
services have gradually expanded and diversified, driving the upgrading of E-commerce services
from small scale to large scale, from singularity to diversification and from a scattered model to a
clustered one.

4. Development model diversification.

During the initial stage of development, Taobao villages focused on online retailing, while now it
shows the trend of diversified development with various models emerging such as online retailing,
online wholesale, cross-border E-commerce and countryside tourism.
3 Economic and social values of Taobao villages

1. Incubation of a large number of gross-roots startups.

One Taobao village is one incubator for gross-roots startups. As of the end of August 2016, there
were more than 300,000 active online stores of Taobao villages across China. E-commerce has
become an important direction for gross-roots startups.

2. Creation of mass job opportunities.

Online merchants can establish startups at low cost, which develop rapidly, creating direct job
opportunities and further driving the development of upstream and downstream industries which
create indirect job opportunities. Data analysis results show that: for every one active online store
newly established in Taobao villages, about 2.8 direct jobs can be created on average. According to
such estimates, as of the end of August 2016, the jobs directly created by active online stores of
Taobao villages nationwide recorded more than 840,000.

3. Poverty elimination and wealth creation through e-commerce.

In 2016, 18 Taobao villages were found in national-level impoverished counties across China,
including 10 in Pingxiang, 2 in Quyang and Zhenping respectively, and 1 in Antu, Heqing, Nankang
and Yunxi respectively. A large number of online merchants have established startups via E-
commerce to increase incomes and get rid of poverty.
Case3: Tencent WeCountry (为村）,Internet + Village

We Country is a platform developed by The Map of Villages Joined in Tencent Open Platform
Chinese Internet giant Tencent, offering
rural communities technical assistance
to help them get the most out of their
smart phones. It is widely seen as an
extensive trial of using mobile Internet
to transform rural China.

Tencent collaborates with telecom

operator China Mobile and mobile
phone maker ZTE to install 4G base
stations in the village offered free cell
phones to households. Staff from Tencent
taught the villagers how to use them to
get online and use Tencent's social
media app, WeChat. Since its launch in
August 2015, WeCountry has signed up
more than 900 villages around China.
Three Functions of WeCountry (connect everything!)

1. Commercialize Specialty (connect wealth,连接财富)

The core mission of the scheme is to pin down and develop any
particular specialty products that could potentially be turned into famous
brands with extended product lines.

2. Activate Remote Communication(connect emotion，连接情感)

WeCountry enables young people who work away from home to follow
and participate in the latest developments in their villages. This mobile
Internet technology has deepened the bond between the migrant workers
away from home and those left behind

3. We-Chat village official account, online group discussions(connect

information，连接信息)

Effects on village economic development, rural community building, public

affairs and village governance (乡村振兴战略，village revitalization strategy）
 Case 4: Inspur (浪潮）
Case4: Digital Solution for Government’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation by Inspur
(浪潮科技）

• Poverty Alleviation Using Big Data establishes "poverty

index" for every poor household. So that the government can
identify the poorest townships, the poorest villages and the
poorest households from a large amount of data and make the
depth of poverty visible and tangible. The poverty alleviation
work has realized the accurate change from qualitative to
quantitative

• IT companies design software and digital devices to integrate

the data resources of the poverty alleviation departments and
relevant departments, manage the information of the poor
with big data, monitor the implementation of poverty
alleviation projects and the use of poverty alleviation funds.

• It also facilitate evaluation of performance of poverty

alleviation work with big data, and allow local governments
and regulatory agencies to make scientific decisions.
 Case 4: Inspur
Targeted (浪潮）
Poverty Reduction as Chinese Solution to Anti-poverty and
Development

• Targeted poverty alleviation has created a miracle in the world's anti-poverty

history. It not only benefited the poor people and poor areas of China, but also
contributed to poverty alleviation internationally with Chinese wisdom and
Chinese solution, enriched and expanded the experience of poverty alleviation in
the world.

• In the aspects of poverty precise identification, precise assistance, precise

management and precise withdrawal, China’s strategy of targeted poverty
alleviation is of great significance to other developing countries.

• In general, targeted poverty alleviation is an important part China’s modernization

drive and has laid a solid foundation for rural revitalization and common prosperity.
Thank you！