From Social Status-based to Human Needs-based Social Policy: the Changes of Chinese Social Policy Paradigm and the Construction of the “Social China”

The development of social policy in contemporary China originated from the labor insurance system, which has obvious characteristic of nationalism and social status basis. Since the reform and opening-up, the paradigm of China’s social policy has undergone the transformation from " developmentalism” to social policy in the new age, and the elements of " human needs” have begun to emerge and become an important basis for the evolution of social policy paradigm. In this process, the content and coverage of social welfare have been expanded continuously, but there are still some realistic problems such as fragmentation of welfare system, treatment distinct between welfare beneficiary groups and insufficient supply of basic public services. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the development of Chinese social policy has entered a new era, the people’s livelihood orientation has been further strengthened, and with the implementation of major livelihood strategies such as " precision poverty alleviation” and " healthy China”, social policy has begun to achieve key breakthroughs in areas such as anti-poverty and health, and the coverage groups and protection levels of social policy have been further expanded and enhanced.