A defining moment? China's social policy response to the financial crisis

This paper discusses whether China's response to the 2008–2009 financial crisis is a ‘defining moment’, whether it is leading to a departure of China's export‐driven development model and whether the large stimulus package is strengthening its social policies and leading towards a more egalitarian structure. Two years after the crisis, it seems China has been very successful in managing the crisis, reaffirming political legitimacy, monitoring potential social unrest and introducing a wide range of promotive measures, even though this did not imply the sudden shift to promotion of household consumption some observers were arguing for. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.