Abstract: In the context of an open society， there are many forces driving social restructuring， and each force has its own unique influence. Their partially overlapped functions and conflicts have created tremendous complexity in the social structure. In the past 30 years since the open reform， China’s sociological studies on social structure have followed the logic of wealth distribution. In this paper， the author claims that since the beginning of the 21st century， a new force that plays a key role in the Chinese social structural changes in a riskoriented society is emerging. On the one hand， the permeation of the risks and their omnipresence have made possible the mobilization of the whole society beyond classes， strata， occupations， sexes， beliefs， and races， thus giving a new impetus to the production of civil society. On the other hand， risk distribution is isomorphic with class and stratus differentiation to some extent， with the former to intensify the latter. Meanwhile， it is possible that risk conflicts may become a force that would bring about new social conflicts. In the new century， the interaction between the logics of wealth distribution and risk distribution will shape China’s social structure into a new tendency.

Key words: risk distribution, social stratification, social structure, wealth distribution