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"China has made remarkable yet uneven progress in social development. This book analyses China's achievements and problems in social development from the perspective of social investment. Social investment has gained popularity in Europe as a new social policy paradigm. It seeks to use government budget more efficiently and effectively by investing in people rather than "social consumption". This book focuses on a few policy areas central to social investment and capacity building, including education, technical training, R&D, and the hukou reform. It also analyses challenges and limitations of China's social investment policies. It sheds light on the most notable feature of China's social investment regime, which is the concentration of resources, privileges, and policy support on sectors and institutions with more growth potential. This helps to explain why China's progress in social development is remarkable but unequal."--Publisher's website

It was another difficult year for China in 2019. The Chinese economy and government revenue registered the lowest growth in nearly three decades. The employment situation has worsened and inflation driven by the surge in pork prices has reached its peak since 2012. Spending huge amounts of government money on social programmes has been China's core coping strategy. This approach is however facing difficulties in localities with a smaller and less diverse revenue base. Social challenges will become even more manifest in 2020.

China had a bumpy year in 2018. The central government had to make a midyear adjustment with renewed emphasis on stabilising the economy and society prompted largely by the US-China trade war and a slew of domestic factors, such as the grieving middle class increasingly burdened by high living costs and growing household debts. By all signs, the year 2019 will be more difficult and a serious test is forthcoming for the Xi leadership.

After decades of large-scale rural-to-urban migration, a massive wave of return migration has emerged in China, signalling China's entry to a new stage of economic and social development. Behind the new trend are the economic take-off of China's hinterland and the ageing of the first-generation migrant workers. While potentially a benign transformative force for rural China, return migration also risks becoming a way to "dump" ageing, unproductive or laid-off migrant workers in the vast countryside.

In September 2017, China released a list of universities to be developed into world-class universities or universities with world-class disciplines. As Xi Jinping's most important initiative in higher education, the "Double World-Class" project is expected to advance Chinese universities in major international league tables. While the best Chinese universities aspire to equal the world's best, deeper changes are needed in the governing of universities, allocating of research funding and fostering of conducive research environment.

China performed well in 2017 creating jobs, controlling inflation and promoting income growth. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had not been troubled by major disturbing incidents as in previous years. The single most important event in 2017 was the CCP's 19th National Congress where "people's ever-growing need for a better life versus unbalanced and inadequate development" was given emphasis. Addressing unbalanced development will likely be the CCP's central task in the coming years.

Innovation-driven development is the hallmark strategy of the Xi Jinping leadership. At the National Conference on Science and Technology in May 2016, Xi announced a three-step road map for China's innovation-driven development. The first is to build China into an innovative nation by 2020; the second is to move China to the forefront of innovative countries by 2030; and the third is to make China an innovation power by 2050.

China's 13th Five-Year Plan (FYP) maps out China's economic and social development in the next five years under the guidelines of "innovative development", "coordinated development", "green development", "open development" and "shared development". It features a pro-active approach to programmes that are "social investment" in nature and a conservative approach to programmes seen as "social consumptions". As the economy slows down, the 13th FYP period is likely to see social expenditures proceeding at a slower pace.

Chinese society was largely stable in 2015 despite the slower economic growth and the stock market crash. Overall, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has prevented local protests from spreading and escalating into a political threat on a national scale. In November 2015, the CCP announced the guidelines for the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020). The shift towards "innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared" development would require more changes in government and society.

China has begun the full-fledged implementation of Xi's agenda of comprehensively deepening reform. Socially, the much anticipated urbanisation plan was announced in April 2014. Reforms in the social domain have made some progress, albeit uneven across issue areas. As China is in the transition to the economic and social "new normal", it takes time, vision, will and skills to balance the multiple goals of stabilising growth, adjusting structure, improving livelihoods and deepening reform.

China released the National New-Type Urbanisation Plan (2014-2020) and the State Council Opinion on Hukou Reform in 2014. The new leadership adopts a tiered approach to hukou conversion, ranging from full liberalisation in towns and small cities to strict control in mega cities. China is highly likely to meet the target of 100 million more urban hukou population by 2020. A big challenge is the integration of migrant workers in large cities.