China’s Pension System: Creating Sustainable and Equitable Social Security

Since 1978, when China started remaking its economy, it has also embarked on an unparalleled effort at remaking its pension system to accommodate its hybrid economic model. This book tells the story of how China has managed to build a national pension system that now covers most of its population and what this system holds for its future.

This book covers the following topics: evolution of Chinese pension system to its current form; benefit design, financing, and governance of current pension system; challenges facing the pension system, especially the looming funding shortage due to accelerating population ageing; solutions to the challenges; and lessons learned from the Chinese experience. Due to the fragmentation of pension system among 31 mainland provinces, we also select three provinces as case studies to help readers gain a richer understanding of how economic and geographic diversity has created disparity in pension benefit design and financing between provinces and within a province and how such disparity adds complexity and challenges to the pension system.

This timely and important study provides up-to-date and in-depth analyses for policymakers and stakeholders to make informed decisions and will be relevant for all scholars and students of public administration and public policy studies.

Jun Peng is Professor at the School of Government and Public Policy, University of Arizona. His research focuses on state and local government financial management in the U.S., and he authored “State and Local Pension Fund Management” which was published by Taylor & Francis.

Qiushi Wang is Professor at the Center for Chinese Public Administration Research and School of Government, Sun Yat-sen University. His research interests center on public budgeting and finance, and his articles have appeared in Public Administration Review and Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.