The Development of Social Security in China

 By Gao Zexin, Mario Arturo Ruiz Estrada, Aslam Mohamed, Minsoo Lee

Over the past 60 years, the social security system has continued to advance with the development of the economy. Especially since China’s Reform and Opening-up, the role and status of social security have become more and more prominent. With the evolution of value concepts and the transformation of the system interacted with each other, China’s social security has embarked on a complicated track of establishing and reform. In 2003, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China promulgated the “Central Committee’s Decision on Several Issues Concerning the Improvement of the Socialist Market Economic System” and proposed that accelerating to found a social security scheme that is matching with the level of economic development. Thus, the social security can become an integral part of the economic system reform. It was not until the Tenth National Congress in 2004, the constitutional amendment was passed, which the provisions of “establishing a sound social security system” were officially included into the constitution, demonstrating that the social security system has formally become a necessary basic institutional arrangement. The status of the social security in China has gradually increased, and the whole society has been increasingly valued its role.

Source: SSRN