Even as the China’s economic reforms in the 1980s and ’90s laid the foundation for it to become an economic powerhouse, increasingly wide gaps opened up between rich and poor, leaving behind those ill equipped to compete in a market economy. In 1993, Shanghai implemented a minimum livelihood guarantee or dibao, an anti-poverty safety net. Since then, the program has expanded throughout China and is centrally regulated. In her new book, Welfare, Work, and Poverty: Social Assistance in China, Qin Gao examines how successful the dibao system has been at alleviating poverty. Her work not only deepens our understanding of entitlements in China, but also adds the Chinese case as a comparative example to the growing body of literature looking at welfare systems around the world. On May 10, 2017, Dr. Gao will join the National Committee in New York City for a discussion of her book, the development and expansion of the dibao system, as well as its policy implications for China and other countries. The program will be moderated by Dr. Mark Frazier, professor of politics at the New School for Social Research.

Qin Gao is professor of social policy and social work at the Columbia University School of Social Work and director of the newly established China Center for Social Policy at the school. She is a faculty affiliate of the Columbia Population Research Center and Weatherhead East Asian Institute. She is also an academic board member of the China Institute for Income Distribution at Beijing Normal University, and is a fellow of the National Committee on United States-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program. In addition to her research on poverty, income inequality, and social welfare policies, Dr. Gao also studies gender inequality and social protection of rural-to-urban migrants in China.

Register Here: https://www.ncuscr.org/content/welfare-work-and-poverty-social-assistance-china