Source: Global Times

Japan's Nikkei Asia Review, July 2 article, original title: China is quietly building a welfare society driven by technology. The Chinese government recently issued two important policy documents, marking a quiet but significant shift in the way China provides social welfare. On June 3, the State Council publicly released the "Regulations on the Sharing of Government Data," aiming to "break down data barriers" and "eliminate data silos." According to Xinhua News Agency on June 9, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council recently issued "Opinions on Further Ensuring and Improving People's Livelihood and Focusing on Solving the Urgent, Difficult, and Painful Issues of the Public." The "Opinions" proposed promoting the deep integration of digital intelligent technologies with public services, accelerating the sharing of information and data, and expanding the coverage of high-quality digital public service resources.

For a long time, China has kept its distance from Western-style welfare models. Officially, it warned against falling into the trap of "welfareism" that makes people lazy. How does China plan to expand social welfare without significantly increasing spending? The answer lies increasingly in data and algorithms.

Many still believe that artificial intelligence (AI) is only used in factory workshops, facial recognition, simplifying customs procedures, and assisting medical diagnoses. However, a more subtle and less noticeable application is being implemented in China: a tech-driven "welfareism." This model utilizes China's existing advantages in digital governance. Over the past decade, China has accumulated a large amount of government data. Now, China is giving these data interoperability and practicality.

Imagine a system that not only can detect families suddenly hit by sharp income reductions in real time, but also identify low-income students struggling in school or elderly people facing loneliness and helplessness. The system automatically triggers mechanisms to support them, without requiring lengthy written documents or being constrained by bureaucratic red tape. This is the prospect of tech-driven welfareism: not about spending more money, but about spending smarter. This is also the significance of China's recent "Regulations on the Sharing of Government Data."

Some localities have already started testing it. In Gansu and Guizhou, digital platforms are identifying residents in need of help and providing them with corresponding services by using data on housing, healthcare, and employment registration. In Chongqing, an AI-based three-dimensional poverty prevention monitoring system has identified low-income families returning to poverty due to illness, prompting relevant departments to provide timely assistance. These pilot projects are still limited to local initiatives, but the trend is evident: China's welfare governance is integrating with AI analysis.

Certain risks are present: algorithms may produce biases, and data privacy continues to be controversial... But these challenges are not unique to China. China's uniqueness lies in the scale and speed of promoting such measures, as well as the political incentives for achieving more with less investment. Such "precision welfare" will not replace traditional welfare policies, but can become a complement to them. If implemented properly, China's social assistance activities will become more adaptable, responsive, and cost-effective.

External observers may overlook this transformation taking place in China's expansion of social welfare. China has not launched massive fiscal expenditure plans, but there is a deeper change in governance methods. China has not built a welfare state in the Western sense, but is forging a different path, creating a more modest and algorithm-driven welfare system with its own characteristics. (Author David Tingxuan Zhang, translated by Ding Ding)

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7522621182437392915/

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