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Welfare is both a native Chinese concept and a foreign import. Although the ideals of charity and protection of the public good have deep political and cultural roots in China, the arrival of Western ideas and institutions radically influenced how these Chinese concepts have been understood and put into practice. This chapter examines how the provision of welfare in China evolved over the span of one crucial century: from the last decades of the Qing dynasty (清 1644–1911), through the turbulent years of the Republic of China and Japanese occupation, to the declaration of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. It shows how and why each of these very different regimes framed their commitment to welfare within political and social ideals, even as actual practice was often constrained by limited reach and resources. This chapter is a historical study, meaning that it will not restrict itself to tracing the roots of contemporary institutions. To understand the historical transformation of welfare in China, we must recreate the full spectrum of ideas and voices, not just the ones that tangibly survived to the present day. Rather than seeking a straight path from traditional institutions to something that might be identified as a distinct Chinese model, this chapter will take a broad view, showing how a wide and changing variety of social forces pushed local and international actors to pursue diverse ideas of what welfare was meant to accomplish, and how and by whom it should be provided. Politically, the slow disintegration of the imperial system allowed the rise of new actors and left a vacuum that was not properly filled until the mid-century seizure of power by the Communist Party. During the decades in between, a variety of local and regional power holders, including Chinese militarists and Japanese-backed regimes in Manchuria and northern China, arose and competed for resources and legitimacy. Each of these regimes took a distinct approach to how and why it would invest in the public good. In many cases, the depth of political dysfunction left welfare entirely unaddressed, often at precisely the moment that the need created by natural and human disasters was at its greatest. At such moments, private actors such as foreign missionaries and philanthropic institutions came to the fore, forging their own links and institutions that would both inspire and compete with political control of welfare. The unique challenges and promises of this 100-year period fed ambitious plans for social transformation. The series of political revolutions put these competing ideologies to the test, and pitted them against each other. Ideas behind the provision of welfare could not avoid being caught in the crossfire. The fundamental questions of welfare provision – how society should take care of its weakest members; what sort of legal and legislative

Welfare provision in China from late empire to the People’s Republic