Social Sciences in China, 2020

Vol. 41, No. 4, 2020

Childcare Policy in China: Review, Reflection and Reconstruction

(Abstract)

Yue Jinglun and Fan Xin

In recent years, China’s “childcare crisis” has worsened, affecting children, women, families and even society as a whole in multiple ways. A review of the childcare policy since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 shows that it has shifted from construction to destruction and thence to partial reconstruction, entering a crucial reconstruction stage after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. To cope effectively with the childcare crisis that has emerged from the changes in population structure and population policies, socioeconomic transformation, family changes, etc., we need to gain a renewed understanding of the important role of childcare policy in socioeconomic development and in the people’s sense of betterment, in order to build an integrated childcare system with universally accessible benefits in which the state, the market, society and families participate.

Keywords: childcare, social care, social policy, people’s well-being