This title was first published in 2003.The People's Republic of China (PRC) is a timely example of social policy reform in a socialist market economy. This important and topical edited collection brings together leading Chinese and Western experts to introduce and integrate policy issues of the PRC into the mainstream of cross-national social policy debate. Drawing upon comparativist expertise in relevant aspects of social policy, the book explores the ways in which the PRC has or has not taken lessons from abroad in key social policy respects and illustrates policy-relevant relations between Chinese and Western perspectives. The contributors identify those aspects of China's recent social policy reforms that seem the most and least likely to appeal to Western societies. The collection therefore represents a substantial advance in two-way, East-West lesson learning in social and public policy.