From Frame of Steel to Iron Cage: The Chinese Communist Party and China's Voluntary Sector

Abstract

As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) celebrated its centenary, its expanding role in penetrating, regulating, and reshaping social organisations (社会组织, shehui zuzhi) seemed to signal a decisive shift in not only the arrangement, but also the balance, of power between the state, the voluntary sector, and the party in favour of the latter. Beginning with the recent reform “decoupling” professional associations and chambers of commerce (行业协会商会, hangye xiehui shanghui) from state management, which has been cited in official documents as a model for “separating the state from society” and an initial step in further reducing the state management in other realms of activity, this article considers broad trends in the CCP's historical relationship with social organisations, particularly alongside its shifting relationship with the state apparatus after 1949, over time. Working through both the CCP's governing practice of “documentary politics” and, more recently, initiatives to expand “rule by law” under Xi, I argue that the party has vastly increased its power, presence, and control over both as it marked its centenary, albeit at times donning the mask of the state to do so. I conclude that the party's continued advance under Xi is occurring at the expense of both the autonomy of the state administration and that of social forces.