<p>The integration of service-oriented professionals, such as social workers, into the Chinese Community Corrections (CCC) epitomizes the blossoming of penal welfarism and the formation of the rehabilitation ideal in modern Chinese penality. While much research has studied varying impacts of rehabilitation delivered by social workers, little is known about the emotional lives of Chinese service providers who are tasked with implementing these rehabilitation programs in the CCC. To advance the literature on the CCC-based rehabilitation, we examine how social workers perform emotional labor when rehabilitating offenders. This study is based on data from an ethnographic study of urban community corrections in China. Our analysis reveals that social workers develop strategies to manage their emotions by adhering to their professional identity as benevolent caregivers while swimming against a labyrinth of bureaucratic and political streams. We term this process “strategic benevolence,” which is fraught with ambivalence yet morally rewarding. Our findings underscore the importance of addressing emotional dilemmas to fulfill the rehabilitative aspirations of the nascent CCC.</p>