Creating an effective social welfare safety net in an era of rapid economic, social and demographic change has proved to be one of the biggest challenges for the Chinese government over the last three decades. The new Social Insurance Law, which went into effect in 2011, was supposed to address these issues by establishing a comprehensive social security framework but many problems with enforcement, transferability and fraud remain. A new study by China Labour Bulletin provides a detailed introduction to the Social Insurance Law and analyses how effective it has been in practice. 

The media love to hail the “opening” of China: opening up to "Western culture," opening up to digital communication and maybe even opening up to democracy. But for the most part, the focus is on keeping China open for business, and that sometimes means closing avenues for social progress and activism.

Sichuan, the Chinese province perhaps most synonymous with the export of rural labour, now has more rural labourers employed at home than in other provinces. In the first half this year, there were 10.9 million rural workers from Sichuan employed inside the province,and 10.1 million rural migrants outside the province, according to official statistics.

Today, the Fair Labor Association released an update on whether Foxconn is complying with a series of recommendations it made. Our China Correspondent Rob Schmitz has the latest.