PENSIONS IN THE CHINESE COMMUNITY

This thesis investigates and compares the development and characteristics of the pension systems in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. It uses a policy index to compare the inputs of these four pension systems as well as their social outputs. The thesis starts by reviewing the ancient Chinese welfare and political ideologies and practices and the Western welfare ideologies and regimes to discover the core values behind the Chinese Community pensions. Four country case studies examine the development and performance of these state pension schemes in the context of the family support system and demographic trends. They explore the sustainability of pension provisions, the adequacy of public pensions, personal and private sources of retirement income. The problems of these four pension provisions are thus revealed. The policy index constructed through the radar chart and Surface Measure of Overall Performance (SMOP) approaches is used to compare the performances of these four pension systems on policy inputs and social outputs. The conclusion of the research is that Confucianism and capitalism integrate into a new paternalism through the patriarchal values they share and which dominate the Chinese Community nowadays. But the features of these four pension systems vary due to the different political, historical, economic and social contexts of each state. The findings show that none of these pension provisions can effectively prevent elderly people from poverty in old age. They all rely on personal social security responsibility and the continuation of the family support system. This thesis concludes that all these states lack a needs-based basic pension system to secure retirees’ income level.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Ph.D

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of York

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• LIN, HUNG-YANG

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• BRADSHAW, JONATHAN

Identifier

uk.bl.ethos.533467

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etheses.whiterose.ac.uk:1019