Compared with the former policies on early childhood education, the policies recently issued in mainland China clearly defined early childhood education as an integral part of education and social public welfare and stipulated the responsibilities of the government in its development, shifting the developmental orientation to promoting social equity. In implementing the new policies, the developmental goals that the local governments set appear divorced from reality, and the developmental paths collide with the current macro social and economic system. This means that the development mode that many local governments exploited is not sustainable. It is suggested that the government should design developmental goals according to actual conditions, reform the public revenue and tax system, and the ECE funding system and introduce a new way to provide public ECE service. (author abstract)