Since 2013, China has rolled out a policy to contract welfare services to non-governmental forces. This has stimulated a growing body of research on the change of China’s welfare governance. This article focuses on a topic that needs to be added, which is the variation of contracting across different service sectors and the operation of the policy in meeting the needs of marginal people. Based on policy analyses and in-depth interviews, we examine services contracting in the sectors of disability and Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS). We found a lack of services provision for the marginal groups in the general contracting of public service. Between the two sectors, we found variations in their definition of welfare services, institutional settings, and specific contracting practices. We argue that while contracting is often seen as a new welfare governance mechanism, it fails to revitalise social services and reproduces welfare inequalities across different groups in China.
