A Distinguished Lecture titled “China’s New Underclass and Its Consciousness” was held
on September 18th at GL-Room, GSIS. Professor Dorothy J. Solinger from University of California
spoke about ‘state legitimacy and the New Urban Poor’. She mainly focused on the Minimum
Livelihood Guarantee program, launched in 1999, to address the issues on the welfare of the
‘New Urban Poor’. She claimed that a major issue is the extent to which a bond of trust entwines
beneficiary and benefactor in their interchange in this welfare sector, the degree to which, that is,
the one has faith in the other.