Welfare for Autocrats: How Social Assistance in China Cares for its Rulers By Jennifer Pan. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. 288 pp., £64 (cloth) £19.99 (paper).

Abstract

This is an important study of the Chinese ‘ safety net ’ social assistance scheme (known as dibao ). Pan shows how dibao is implemented at local level through a network of local agents. She illustrates how dibao is prioritized for ex-prisoners and how, to a certain extent, this facilitates support (or supervision) of such ex-prisoners and arguably creates a dependent relationship which may discourage them from any “ anti-social ” behavior and, in particular, collective action. It is an important book not only for those interested in Chinese social policy and/or public security but for any-body interested in how the Chinese state works and how policies flow down to the lowest level of governance. However, insofar as the book goes further and suggests that the dibao scheme has been “ reshaped ” to turn “ an effort to alleviate poverty into a tool of surveillance and repression, ” it arguably goes beyond what the evidence shows. The basic argument is that one many tools) to “ repress ” the “ targeted population ” ( ) which includes those of state security, users. Pan argues that dibao has been refocused to provide support to these groups though a process she describes as “ seepage, ”