Welfare contracting with Chinese socialist characteristics: Experience of the Bohai Bay Economic Rim, Northern China

This study is set out against the broader socio-political economy context, in which China searches for better social governance to improve service delivery catering to the soaring demand on social care in the Bohai Bay Economic Rim (BBER). BBER is one of China's industrial bases and currently an emerging economic powerhouse in Northern China, rivalling the Pearl River Delta in the south and Yangtze River Delta in the east. On the bases of policy reviews and in-depth interviews with government officials, social welfare experts, and managers and social workers of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), this research contributes to an improved understanding of social governance reforms in China through the welfare contracting, development trends and implementation challenges and changing state–NGO relationships. Empirical data have shown that the success of governance reforms in the BBER area depends heavily on personal relationships rather than organisational reforms. Local officials have successfully maintained strong discretion and intervention through a top-down and authoritarian approach in welfare contracting, whilst they allocated resources to a circle of acquaintances in the manner of market exchange but without the substance of competition. Copyright © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.