Managing welfare in post-colonial Hong Kong

This chapter continues the analysis of social policy in the Hong Kong SAR. It focuses on the mode of welfare management: the essential nature of state intervention in welfare and the heavy impact of the Asian economic crisis. The chapter details recent cuts in public expenditure and the contracting out of core welfare services that have been implemented in response to economic crisis. As well as the importance of the free market and Chinese familism, this chapter emphasises the essential role of the undemocratic polity of Hong Kong and the privileged position of the business community within the governing elite. Having shown how the economic success of Hong Kong was founded partly on the incorporation of the middle class, the chapter questions whether this is sustainable in view of the undermining of the security of middle-class welfare professionals, for example in health and higher education.