The models of psychiatric rehabilitation described in this supplement evolved in response to a change in the official attitude to the disabled and to the provision of welfare services that has arisen since the start of China's reform era in 1978. The traditional ‘residual’ welfare that provided the minimum services needed to prevent social unrest (Chan & Chow, 1992) has been transformed into a pro-active form of welfare that identifies disadvantaged and disabled persons in the community and provides them with support and rehabilitation. Perhaps the most dramatic indication of the new status of the disabled in China is that the opening ceremony of the Second National Congress of the China Disabled Persons' Federation on 6 October 1993 was held in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, and President Jiang Zemin, Premier Li Peng and “all China's top Party and government leaders” were in attendance (Liang, 1993).