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Author	Dr Zhang Xuan
Organisation/Institution	East China University of Political Science and Law
Country	CHINA
Panel	Constitutional and Admin Law
Title	Reconstructing Welfare Administration in the Digital Platform Era: The Public Service Functions of Healthcare Platforms and Sustainable Development in Asia
Abstract	This paper explores how welfare administration in Asia is being reconstructed in the digital platform era, using healthcare service platforms as a focal case to examine the evolving public functions and regulatory implications of digital governance. In recent years, administrative law—particularly in the field of welfare administration—has shifted from a model centered on direct state provision to one characterized by networked, platform-enabled, and data-driven governance. This transformation challenges the traditional administrative boundaries between public and private actors and calls for a renewed understanding of “publicness” within administrative law. Through the case of healthcare platforms, the study illustrates how digital technologies reshape the modes of public service delivery, accountability, and legitimacy. Platforms now serve as quasi-public infrastructures that coordinate welfare resources, mediate citizen access, and influence distributive justice, thereby redefining the administrative relationship between state, market, and individuals. Beyond the domestic context, the paper situates this transformation within the broader pursuit of sustainable development and regional governance in Asia. It argues that platform-based welfare governance—while promoting efficiency and inclusiveness—also exposes legal asymmetries and regulatory fragmentation across jurisdictions. Addressing these challenges requires reimagining administrative law as a framework for integrating technological innovation with social justice and for fostering sustainable and equitable welfare systems in the region.
Biography	Zhang Xuan is a research assistant at the Institute for the Strategy of Rule of Law, East China University of Political Science and Law. She holds an LL.B. from China University of Political Science and Law, an LL.M. in International Law and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) in the U.S. Law from Peking University School of Transnational Law, and a Ph.D. in Constitutional and Administrative Law from KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She has also been a visiting scholar at Stockholm University in Sweden and has participated in Szymanski Annual Rule of Law Program for multiple times.She has published several articles as a sole author in CLSCI-indexed core journals and has participated in major research projects funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China and other provincial or ministerial-level programs. Her research interests focus on general and frontier issues in constitutional and administrative law, with recent attention to digital platform governance, health law, and the transformation of the rule of law within national and Asia-Pacific regional governance modernization.