Old-age Care Provision in China in the Context of A New System of Long-term Care and Dual Decentralization

Over the past decade, the Chinese government has made progress in expanding welfare provision in response to the ageing challenges posed by demographic transformation. Considerable changes in social policy implementation and
social welfare delivery have also emerged along with the vertical and horizontal decentralisation reforms. Realizing that the government may face challenges in funding and providing high-quality social services, the Chinese government has instrumentally pragmatic in enlisting non-governmental organizations and for-profit enterprises to address the growing demand for old-age care as well as the wide regional differences in social, economic, and political development. This study examines whether care providing strategies for older adults diversified by regions in the context of a new system of long-term care that emanated from 2016. Budding on the concept of welfare mix and collaborative governance, the aim of this study is to develop a multi-dimensional, institutional-centred typology of old-age care system, which can then be further used to investigate how multi-faceted dynamics shaped welfare regionalism and influenced the delivery of integrated services.