Abstract: The value swing behind China's family policy and the unclear goals of the policy itself have always been critical issues in China's family policy research. In recent years, public opinion has disputed policies on divorce threshold, family property division and inheritance, clearly indicating many disagreements between legislators and various social subjects on the perception of legislative objectives and the judgment of policy outcomes. How can we better understand the value ambiguities behind the marriage and family law in China, the significant differences in position between the state and the people, and the various dislocations between policy goals and functions?
"Family policy" in this study is defined in a broad sense. The logic behind the family policy phenomenon is explained accordingly through an analysis of the institutional text and the policy supply mechanism. By distinguishing the parent-child intergenerational relationship from the marriage relationship within the "family", the paper demonstrates that China's family policy since the 1980s has dual principles for the vertical intergenerational family and the horizontal marriage relationship. The relevant laws have an institutional consistency in strengthening family responsibilities and setting the family as an important welfare provider.
In addition, through the identification of the different attributes of laws and regulations, and the analysis of the supply mechanism of the family policy in a broad sense, the study suggests that local governments, responsible for family welfare, tend to adopt private laws as the system framework and use "family-household" strategies to improve family welfare provider capacities. Such strategies help reenforcing the individual's dependence on the family, especially the intergenerational family, but at the same time may also bringing about certain policy outcomes that restrict family life and family development.

Key words: family policy, familization, principle, policy supply mechanism, family-household governance