Quote Originally Posted by Montmorency View Post
You'll have to be more specific, as I get what you're trying to say but you're not relating it to the real world. Welfarism is not a function of liberalism but rather, in one form or another, a universal contemporary consensus. Most people in every country* accept the proposition that the state must do something to provide for the sick, the elderly, and the less well-off; specifics may vary. Even the majority of base Republicans agree in principle, and they're quite possibly the most anti-welfarist bunch on the planet.

The Chinese state does provide for the social security of the elderly, and not on a mere family-subsidized basis. In the Maoist days, it aspired and attempted to provide more. Expanding social security or healthcare access is not something that would be culturally alien to the Chinese people, independent of any particular manifestation of policy or governmental interest/public approval therein.

If, as ACIN and many others believe, old-age care is going to become a very big social problem in China by the mid-century, one that will not be ameliorated in some non-fiscal way, then there's nothing to show that the Chinese public won't place demands on the state to do something about it, or that the CCP wouldn't be able to conceive or (ideologically) countenance expansion or reform of existing programs.

The potential limitations placed by extended families and filial piety on the growth of the sort of long-term care facilities that exist in the Anglosphere (and trust me, Anglophones of the past, within living memory, felt similarly - until they didn't) aren't a limitation on public expectations or government initiatives.
Welfare in Chinese society starts with the family. At both ends of the spectrum, both when very young and when very old. When the immediate family does not suffice, then the extended family contributes. You cite Maoism, but that was an aberration in Chinese history, when the state replaced family. It is not looked upon with any fondness. Where the state does allow for provision, it supplements, not replaces, effort from the family.

The first paragraph above is by no means as universal as you think it is. It is extremely wide of the mark where China is concerned.