An Analysis of the Impact of Globalization on China's Social Policies After China Joins the WTO

China's reform and opening up to the outside world was launched in the context of economic globalization. The restructuring of China's economic system over the last twenty years, its opening up to the outside world, and the process by which Chinese society has been transformedâall these changes took place with the development of globalization and its accelerating impact on society. Without question, China has already achieved tremendous success in reform and opening upâat least in the dimension of economic growth. Despite the fact that the government, researchers, scholars, and even the common mass of people could see that this process would bring with it all sorts of problems, such as the widening gap and polarization between rich and poor, they have nevertheless regarded such problems just as a "side product" in the reform of the domestic economic system and the transformation of society. They even optimistically believed that such problems could and would be resolved, as long as reform could be deepened, or economic growth and development be sustained. However, from the perspective of the conditions that prevailed in the late 1990sâthe expansion and deepening of the scope of reform and sustained growth in the economyâsocial problems like the widening gap between rich and poor have not been resolved. Indeed, there appears to be a trend toward the expansion and deepening of these very same problems. Confronted with this situation, scholars and researchers have no recourse but to seek answers to these problems from a wider sphere.