Not everyone in China has benefited from the country's rapid increase in prosperity. People and places have been left behind. Indeed, the official intention behind China's shift to a market-oriented development path, in the words of Deng Xiaoping, was to "let some areas and some people become rich first, and drive others to become rich later". Unequal development and inequity has resulted. This carefully researched volume examines how the Chinese government has dealt with unequal development with its governance tools and how and why Chinese society has accepted such high levels of inequality. What is the Chinese social model that seemingly goes against the socialist aims of the state? In exploring these questions, the authors consider what is special about China and what the Chinese model is all about, showing how it goes beyond ideas about capitalism and socialism.