This is an edited book based on the selected papers presented at an international conference of the same title, which was held in August 2013 at the South China University of Technology (SCUT) in Guangzhou. At that time, Xi Jinping, China's new leader had just come to power and China was suffering from a variety of social conflicts resulting from its rapid economic growth. Organized and sponsored by The Institute of Public Policy, an important government think tank based on the SCUT and headed by Professor Zheng Yongnian, a famous Singapore-based China expert, the conference had a strong purpose to reflect on the relations between economic development and social development in China, and on the paths for China's social policy reforms. In doing so, it is necessary to learn the rich experiences of Europe, the US and Asian developed economies in social development and social policies.

A total of fourteen articles contributed by scholars coming from China and beyond are included in the book, which are divided into three parts. Part One, composed of three articles, addresses the social policy development in Europe and the US. Part Two has six articles, which discuss social policy in the developed economies in Asia. Part Three focuses on social policy in the Mainland China, which consists of five articles. Seemingly, the organization of this book has an obvious geographic perspective as these three parts stand for three geographic groups of economies. According to the editors, the sequence and categorization of these three groups generally reflect the trajectories and some major characteristics of the development of welfare state in the world – because social policy (welfare state) was born in Europe and got its first wave of development in Europe and the US, and then extended its influence to the newly developed economies in Asia (the second wave). Following this kind of logic, the development of social policy is facing its third wave in China as China intended to promote social development and maintain social stability after a few decades of rapid economic development. To make better preparation for the coming of the third wave in China, how to relate the international experiences with China's special conditions has become a big issue of both great theoretical and practical importance. Obviously, this book has a strong sense of mission to make efforts for this kind of preparation in the field of academics: almost all of the articles addressing social policies in Europe, the US and Asia has a section to discuss the lessons or implications for China's social policy.

Part One has three chapters addressing some new trends in the reform of welfare state and social policy in Europe and the US in the new century, including social investment, social policy reform strategies, and the enabling state. In the lengthy first chapter, Anton Hemerijck from VU University Amsterdam examines the social investment turn in European welfare state in the context of welfare state reforms. He argues that European welfare states have entered a new era of reform and adaptation since the mid-1990s, which has been represented by the wide diffusion of the so-called “social investment” policy approach throughout Europe. Using descriptive data from the OECD and Eurostat, Hemerijck tries to demonstrate how far different welfare regimes in Europe have taken social investment ideas to heart. He argues that European welfare states are in the way towards social investment, which has supported by three important changes: first, the shift of the overarching social policy objective to proactively promoting labour market participation (that is, the shift toward activation); second, a distinct departure from the longstanding male-breadwinner/female-homemaker legacy toward capacitating social services; and, third, the overall shift in welfare financing from social contributions from workers and employers to general taxation. As for the social investment lessons for China, Hemerijck emphasizes that the provision of capacitating social services for individuals of all age groups is of key importance for China's long-term human capital development due to changing labour market and family patterns, urbanization and economic transition to services in China. In Chapter Two, Giuliano Bonoli from University of Lausanne discusses the shifting reform strategies in European welfare states. These shifts in key reform strategies include those from retrenchment to negotiated reform to activation/social investment and finally to dualization. Bonoli further identifies the key factors driving these shifts: (a) economic constraints and their severity; (b) electoral optimization and (c) the availability of suitable policy ideas. As for the implications for China, unfortunately, Bonoli only says that budgetary constraints are unlikely to be a major driver of reform in China's social policy. Chapter Three, contributed by Neil Gilbert, a prominent social policy scholar from UC Berkeley, aims to survey the changing landscape of social policy in the US at the turn of the new century. Gilbert describes the social policy changes in many of the advanced industrialized nations including the US as a shift from the welfare state to the “enabling state”. With this term “enabling state” rather than “social investment state”, Gilbert stresses the idea of “public support for private responsibility”. In the enabling state, the public sector has become less of a counterforce and more of a subsidiary to the market economy. As for the implications of the US experiences in welfare reforms for Chinese social policy, Gilbert mentions three aspects: from direct financial assistance to low-income families toward subsidized low-income work; shortening period of unemployment compensation; and the mix of Public Private Partnership (PPPs) in social programs.

Part Two addresses the social policy reforms in the developed economies in Asia. Composed of six chapters, this part forms the main part of the book in terms of both the number of articles and the space. In Chapter Four, Watanabe Masao from Hitotsubashi University in Japan explores the Japanese welfare experience. In his chapter, Watanabe first examines the key elements of Japan's welfare experiences, especially the notion and experience of familism, and then suggests some of the historical implications of Japan's welfare experiences. Drawing on the Japanese experiences, Watanabe argues for a greater role of civil society in the future development of welfare state, and requires socialism to be revived and renovated to fit the modern welfare regime. In Chapter Five, the lengthiest one in this edited book, Christian Aspalter from BNU-HKBU United International College, Hong Kong reviews social policy in South Korea from a historical-political perspective. While tracing the major reasons of Korean welfare state development, Aspalter looks at the future direction of social policy in South Korea. Meanwhile, a relatively strong comparative perspective is developed to compare the case of South Korea with other welfare regimes including China in East Asia. In doing so, Aspalter put an emphasis on the impact of pro-welfare party doctrines as well as communism or socialism in China's social policy making. He even argues that the ideology of Marxism will help a great deal in trying to achieve both economic growth and social harmony at the same time. In Chapter Six, M. Ramesh, a veteran comparative health policy scholar from National University of Singapore, discusses the role of the Central Provident Fund (CPF), a system of mandatory individual retirement savings account, in protecting the elderly in Singapore. While arguing that the CPF fails to provide adequate level of income support to a majority of its members during retirement, Ramesh pays much attention to the lessons that CPF offers to China's social pension insurance system. In Chapter Seven, Zhao Litao from National University of Singapore examines the transition of social policy in Singapore. Zhao first briefly describes Singapore's social development experience from a comparative perspective, and then identifies the “strategic shifts” in Singapore's social policy by examining in details the three policy areas of public housing, health care and social security. When discussing the implications of Singapore's welfare experiences for China, Zhao highlights that the new leadership of China under Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang should rebuild the momentum for social policy reform. Chapter Eight contributed by Qi Dongtao, one of the co-editors of the book, also a scholar from National University of Singapore provides an overview of social welfare expansion in Taiwan with a focus on its renowned National Health Insurance (NHI). Based on the comparative analysis of the social welfare systems between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Qi concludes that mainland China can learn much from Taiwan in terms of improving the design and management of some specific social programs. For example, learning from the NHI in terms of the medical and administrative cost control system, and learning from Taiwan on how to improve the pension system's fairness. In Chapter Eight, Joe Leung from University of Hong Kong offers the sole and detailed discussion of workfare in Hong Kong. However, no implication for China is provided.

Part Three has five chapters, which are all about social policy and social development in mainland China. In Chapter Ten, Zheng Yongnian, an internationally renowned China commentator, provides an overall discussion of social policy development in contemporary China with a focus on the political logic of social policy reform. After examining the evolution of China's social policy in the post-Mao era, Zheng argues that China has been lack of dynamics of social policy reform. He also claims that much of the social grievances and social injustice in contemporary China are rooted in the unequal and unjustified distribution of social welfare. While the great advances in social policy sector under the Hu-Wen administration is highly appreciated, Zheng argues that social policy reform is still limited in scope and falls short of general public expectations. For Zheng, the key reason for this situation is the lack of reform dynamics, because state-society relations in China are plagued by a myriad of special privileges and stakes for the social elite in the name of the state. Zheng concludes that the absence of social policy reform has led to increasing distrust between the state and society and disloyalty of the majority of social groups. He warns that without proper social policy reform among other major reforms to address the fundamental structural dilemmas, both social and economic development will be unsustainable and generate a vicious circle. Therefore, how to push social policy reform is one of the key challenges facing the current Xi Jinping-Li Keqiang leadership. Chapter Eleven, contributed by Åke Blomqvist from University of Carleton, Canada, examines mainly China's social policy expansion under the Hu-Wen era. Beginning with the relations between poverty, inequality and social policy, Blomqvist discusses briefly the efforts made by the Hu-Wen administration in strengthening its social programs, and indicates that China is seeking to move in the direction of a “Chinese welfare state” as China has put more emphasis on the ideals of economic justice and social harmony. Then China's efforts to reduce inequality via direct cash transfers and income taxation and transfers in kind are examined in detail. Finally, Blomqvist concludes that the Hu-Wen leadership has moved rapidly toward upgrading China's social policies as a framework for increased redistribution of income to the poorest and the elderly through cash transfers is in place. As a result, China has experienced a substantial increase in conventional measures of economic inequality. In Chapter Twelve, Qian Jiwei from National University of Singapore discusses China's health system in terms of legal enforcement. Focusing on the institutional explanation of the ineffective enforcement of regulations and laws for tobacco control and medical malpractice dispute, Qian provides a unique perspective to examine social policy in China in comparison with other chapters in this book. I call this kind of perspective in analysing social policy in China a “social management approach”. Such an approach becomes more apparent in Chapter Thirteen, which is contributed by Cai Yongshun and Zhou Titi from Hong Kong University of Sciences and Technology. Focusing on the problem of social stability, Cai and Zhou discuss the relations among social protest, state response and regime legitimacy in China. Although social policy is an effective tool to cope with social protest and increase regime legitimacy as proven in the advanced market economies, this chapter fails to explore the role of social policy in maintaining social stability. In Chapter Fourteen, Shan Wei from National University of Singapore provides an empirical study on the happiness curve in China: while per capita GDP soared, life satisfaction (subjective well-being) of Chinese people declined. Based on the analysis of some survey data, Shan argues that income inequality and declining social welfare are the two major causes for the downturn of happiness in China.

Overall, this book is a timely and important resource of social policy and social development in both China and beyond. Contributed by a few prominent social policy scholars all over the world, this book discusses the birth and evolution of social policies and welfare state, gives comparative analysis of different welfare regimes and social development modes, and explores the challenges facing social policy reforms in Europe, the US, East Asia, especially in China. Though the book has a strong commitment to social policy reform and social development in China, it is unfortunate that no chapter is contributed by a social policy scholar from mainland China. But, it is very interesting to note that some articles included in the part on mainland China lack the flavour of typical social policy analysis, which may indicate the emergence of a new approach of social policy research with Chinese characteristics, which I like to call a “social management approach”. Although the book fails to examine China's social policy in the era of Xi Jinping, it provides some reflections on the future direction of China's social policy and social development based on the welfare experiences in other economies.