Take Realizing Social Insurance as a Guiding Aim: 1921–1949

Abstract

In 1948, one year before the New China was founded, the capital of the Kuomintang government, Nanjing, already had a population of 13.57 million, but the industrial basis there was weak. It only had 38 bureaucratic capital enterprises, 888 middle- and small-sized private enterprises and 22,387 industrial workers. Among them over 8000 worked for the textile industry, others mainly for light industry, such as brewery, printing house, lighting plant, hardware manufacturing, and furniture plant. But due to wars and corruption, these industries always run below capacity or even shut down. Only few officials and teaching staffs could enjoy special old-age and medical benefits, borne by the national treasury, provincial treasury, or municipal education budget. And few industrial workers could also participate in compulsory old-age insurance. But as China was undergoing wars and instabilities, even the above benefits could not be really realized. In most part of China, it was common to see laborers and especially a large quantity of the unemployed, vagrants and victims of natural disasters and wars live a hard life with displacement, hunger and coldness.