State Governance and Protest Fragmentation: A Critical Inquiry into Veterans’ Activism in China

An attempt is made to summarize key results from a recently concluded project examining continuity and change in one particular dimension of family life in one particular city in the mid-1990s, along with selected comparisons with the same aspect of family life in urban Taiwan. The similarities and differences in urban family patterns in the 1990s are analysed in two ethnically Chinese societies that originally followed quite different development paths, the closed-door revolutionary socialism of the PRC and the market capitalism of Taiwan.

The article discusses corruption and selective policy implementation as general phenomena, related to the configurations of political power and the behavior of key actors in a specific rural county, Benghai County of Anhui Province. The County government only takes up initiatives in which three conditions are met, which are highlighted.

The current status of feminism in China reflects its precariousness as a school of thought, an activist practice, and a topic of study. By historicizing the study and practice of feminism since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, this essay reflects upon conducting research and teaching feminist activism in contemporary China. The shift from state feminism to NGO feminism to a loose and current network of feminists who greatly rely on digital media and the internet for their visibility and advocacy sits in accordance with the liberation of the market, the proliferation of consumer culture, the embrace of all things feminine, and the convergence of state control and market capitalism. Ever-evolving gender dynamics in Chinese society oblige researchers to investigate these dynamics when they seek to explain Chinese feminist activism, given the nuances of history, transnational influence, impact of media and technology, and specific geopolitical factors.

China's national policy formulation undergone economic transformation and shaped the making of policies in promotion of private business and stock market regulation. China's distinctive process of central-local interaction in policy generation is one of its core strengths in reforming its economy.

Do Critical and Normative Inquiry Conflict?

Why has it been exceedingly difficult to restructure China's village-level, political institutions? Over and above hurdles arising from belated leadership support and bureaucratic squabbling, implementation of The Organic Law of Villagers' Committees has depended on how villagers and local cadres perceive their interests and understand their resources. Although the Law does not generate a single pattern of concerted, localist opposition, aspects of it alienate one or another affected party almost everywhere. Outside the singularly favorable conditions found in not poor, "up-to-standard" villages with a strong collective sector, cadre resistance and villager skepticism have been considerable. In many paralyzed, authoritarian, and "run-away" localities, balancing demands to increase state penetration and popular participation have impinged on the interests of both cadres and villagers and simultaneous acceptance of both key aims of the Law has proven to be difficult to secure.

As China celebrates its 40th anniversary, in 2018, of the reform and opening-up, it is an opportune moment to examine China’s development characteristics from the perspective of local governance. From 1978 to 2018, the main focal point of China’s reform and opening-up has been the decentralization from the government to the market and the society, as well as the decentralization from the central government to local governments. China’s local governments, which directly undertake local economic development, the provision of public services, and social functions, carry out the policies of the central government and perform de facto governmental functions, as well as offer key insights into to Chinese governmental operation. In China, a local governance system—which gives priority to local governments and includes both market participation and social coordination—is taking shape and playing an increasingly important role in national governance. It’s worth pointing out that China’s reform and opening-up develops along with the global local governance reform, responding to negative effects of globalization in local economic and social development. It plays a key role in a global multilevel governance since it directly deals with a multitude of public issues and services. This shows that local governance in contemporary China, which develops along with globalization, constitutes a key component of the global local governance reform and reflects the application results of governance theories in China.

Yang Zhong's excellent book about Local Government and Politics in China gives a succinct and convincing account of the frameworks for local governance in the PRC today. The organization, functioning, powers and evolution of local government in China are notoriously difficult to grasp due to the many intersecting layers and lines of authority, the diversity of local conditions, and the shorthand language used by administrators to refer to local government. Although there is a growing literature on local government in contemporary China, we have, until now, lacked a comprehensive overview in English.For almost a decade Yang Zhong has observed the behaviour of local government in a small number of places in China, and is thus able to base his account on actual practice. The style is refreshingly simple and easy to follow, the administrative jargon is well explained, and the structure of the presentation is lucid. The core aspects of local governance are covered, with a sound focus on counties, townships and towns, and a separate chapter dealing with village politics. Local authorities in cities are not covered; this omission is unfortunate, but understandable from the point of view of keeping the book within manageable limits.

The landscape of social governance and education in China offers a rich field for academic inquiry, having achieved significant milestones such as implementing nine-year compulsory education, expanding higher education and promoting vocational training programs. These initiatives have substantially contributed to poverty reduction and economic prosperity over recent decades. However, this progress has also brought forth numerous challenges and issues, such as disparities in education quality, regional inequities and the complexities of balancing state and market governance (Guo et al., 2019). These issues have been widely researched, highlighting the ongoing difficulties in achieving equitable and effective educational reform in China.

The rise of governance theory produces a discernible impact on political-administrative research and public administration practices in China. The introduction of such concepts as the state governance system and social governance indicates that governance has even become an official discourse in China. Since the inception of governance theory in China, a series of disputes have emerged in terms of the logical relationship between governance and good governance and the applicability of governance theory in China. Although these disputes exert a marginal effect on research on Chinese governance, a core issue regarding applicability reappears—tension between state building and governance—amid the present-day conflict between state governance and social governance, as well as, the current contention between official discourse and academic discourse. The future agenda of research on Chinese governance needs to revolve around this core, involving state governance, social governance, and the interaction between the two.

Reviewed by: China's Opening Society: The Non-State Sector and Governance Peter Yang (bio) Yongnin Zheng and Joseph Fewsmith. China's Opening Society: The Non-State Sector and Governance. China Policy Series. New York: Routledge, 2008. xii, 244 pp. Hardcover $150.00, isbn 978-0-415-45176-5. This volume is a compilation of essays whose early versions were initially presented as papers at the International Conference on the Development of the Non-State Sector, Local Governance and Sustainable Development in China (Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, June 24–25, 2006). The essays critically review the development of the non-state sector and NGOs as part of socioeconomic transformations in China since the late 1970s. With China becoming an increasingly open economy and society, this text is of particular importance. This transitional and developing nation has been, on the one hand, quite successful at bringing economic efficiency, and thus prosperity and consumption, to its citizens. However, it has been far less successful at reducing the widening income disparity and the resulting daunting social and political challenges. Issues discussed in the book can be divided into two groups: theoretical and practical. The theoretical group includes a study of three different models of civil society and their applicability to China and a critical review of the NGO sustainable development philosophy. This theoretical discussion sets the stage for an understanding of the concept of civil or open society, the major players in this society, and its implication for China. The practical group examines the development of civil society not only as a by-product of China's economic reforms, but also as an intricate political and social process. The practical exploration covers such important issues as institutional barriers to the development of civil society in China; civil society in Russia and China; NGOs in China; the corporate social responsibility in China; media, internet, and governance in China; county government authorities in China; chambers of commerce in Wenzhou; deliberative institutions in China; and the role of international NGOs in local governance and village elections in China. The text demonstrates how the initial priority of the rapid economic growth in the Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin eras has switched under Jiantao Hu to a socioeconomic strategy aiming at establishing a "harmonious society," with greater emphasis on previously neglected areas such as environment protection and sustainability, public education, public health, public transportation, and welfare. The authors assess the potential impact of this strategic change of the Chinese government on the development of the non-state sector as an effective provider of social and public services. [End Page 594] At the same time, they dissect various institutional barriers faced by Chinese NGOs, such as prohibitively high costs related to registration requirements, lack of funding, lack of tax exemption, and supervision in terms of nonprofit principles, one the one hand, and excessive interference with autonomous and competitive principles, on the other hand. They also analyze the causes of these barriers, especially the party's and government's fundamental distrust of civil organizations, and the resulting undesirable consequences, such as the existence of a great number of nonregistered NGOs and the tendencies of NGOs to become externally monopolistic and internally poorly managed, and either bureaucratic or profit-seeking, which prevents them from merely serving as helping hands rather than as autonomous, independent organizations, and from effective performance as an essential social and public service provider in an open, civil society. These results of the in-depth analysis largely echo, on the one hand, the findings of similar studies on the market, for example, Qiusha Ma's Non-Governmental Organizations in Contemporary China: Paving the Way to Civil Society? (Routledge; 2005), which considers NGOs facilitating the development of civil society, and Yiyi Lu's Non-Governmental Organisations in China (Routledge, 2008), which views Chinese NGOs as dependent on the government, needing professional skills, and lacking oversight. On the other hand, the conclusion of this book disagrees with Lu's, which attributes the problems of the Chinese NGOs to the central government's limited capacity to control NGOs and the fragmented and nonmonolithic nature of the government, which allow individual government agencies to protect particular NGOs, especially officially organized ones, from...

theorem and proportions. Claudia von Collani gives an overview of Ricci’s scientific activities in China based on Western language secondary literature. The book closes with a contribution by Pierre Léna, an eminent French astrophysicist, who gives an account of a decade of cooperation in science education between French and Chinese scientists and teachers; the assumption underlying this enterprise is that science can function as a bridge between cultures, and provide a means to combine cultural diversity and universality. As a closure to the volume, Léna’s contribution effectively enhances the view of Ricci as a pioneer of exchanges between the two ends of the Eurasian continent. The volume has the strengths and weaknesses of any exercise in commemoration . On the one hand, the variety of approaches highlights the manifold subjects that are relevant to our understanding of Ricci’s missionary enterprise. In that respect, it is perhaps the contributions that do not focus on him, but on the world in which he lived, a world that included China but was not limited to it (Wang, Aubin, Ben-Dor Benite, Golvers, Iannaccone), and on the ways Ricci can be seen today (Meynard) that are most enlightening. On the other hand, some contributions revisit already well-researched subjects (Li, von Collani, Martzloff, Dhombres): while they must have contributed to the interest of the conference, they give the reader an impression of déjà vu, sometimes tempered by interesting insights. The two aspects are of course linked: as Wang modestly reminds us, Ricci has been so thoroughly researched that one is unlikely to uncover new material concerning him (p. 29), so that new light on him is most likely to be indirect. The book appears to contain all the papers submitted to the conference. As is not uncommon in volumes of conference proceedings, some of the contributions are minutely researched and abundantly footnoted texts, while others simply convey what is evidently the substance of an oral presentation. Finally, the book has the merit of keeping its promise: it does provide a glimpse into the state of research on Matteo Ricci: what we know, what still needs investigating. In that respect, particularly worth the attention of the readers of the Journal of Chinese Religions are the contributions that focus on the religious and intellectual trends present in East Asia both in Ricci’s time and today. CATHERINE JAMI CNRS, Centre d’études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, Paris FRANCIS KHEK GEE LIM, ed., Christianity in Contemporary China: Socio-Cultural Perspectives. Routledge Studies in Asian Religion and Philosophy. London & New York: Routledge, 2013. xii, 265 pp. £85, US$145 (hb). ISBN 978-0-41552846 -7 Christianity in Contemporary China is an important addition to the academic literature on contemporary Chinese Christianity with a particular focus on social and cultural perspectives of the faith in China today. The book is comprised of a selection from papers presented at the eponymous conference held in 2011 in Singapore. Its sixteen chapters are organized around four broad themes with an unequal amount of contributions to each one. The themes are ‘‘enchantment,’’ ‘‘nation and history,’’ ‘‘civil society,’’ and ‘‘negotiating boundaries.’’ Contributors range from doctoral candidates to distinguished professors from a variety of 232 BOOK REVIEWS universities from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, the United States, and Europe. Methodologically the chapters employ a mix of text analysis and interviews, with predominance of the latter where studies of contemporary churches are concerned. Some chapters provide broad conceptual insights, whereas others are based around very focused case studies of particular congregations in certain localities. As the editor puts it, ‘‘[the book’s] major contribution to scholarship lies in its wide range of empirical analyses of the complex and highly diverse experience of Christianity in contemporary China’’ (p. 2). Chinese Christianity has been trying to shake off its label as a ‘‘foreign religion’’ in China, used as a ‘‘tool of influence by western imperialists.’’ Yet the influence foreign missionaries have had not only on the creation of indigenous Chinese Christian groups, but also on the discourse on religion more generally is undeniable. It was the Christian missionaries—together with reformers and revolutionaries—who first introduced the ‘‘religious’’ as a separate category...

China's development model is undergoing dramatic change. No longer relying solely on cheap labor to manufacture exports, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is updating its approach in three distinct...

China’s economy and technology have experienced spectacular growth since the Opening-up Policy adopted in 1978. In order to explore the innovation process and development of China, this study examines the inventive activities and the collaboration pattern of university, industry and government (UIG) in China. This study analyzes the Chinese patent data retrieved from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Three models of UIG relations which represent different triple helix configurations are introduced. According to the property of patent assignee, patent ownership can be divided into three types: individuals, enterprises, and universities and research institutes. Furthermore, enterprises can be classified into state-owned enterprise (SOE), private-owned enterprise (POE) and foreign enterprise (FE). The corresponding relationship of patent ownership with UIG is set up. Through analyzing the issued year, it is found that the inventive activities of China have experienced three developmental phases and have been promoted quickly in recent years. The achievement of innovation activities in China primarily falls on the enterprise, especially FEs and POEs. The innovation strengths of the three development phases have shifted from government to university and research institute and then industry. According to co-patent analysis, it is found that the collaboration between university and industry is the strongest and has been intensified in recent years, but other forms of collaboration among UIG have been weak. In addition, an innovation relation model of China was set up. The evolution process of innovation systems was explored, from etatistic model, followed by improved “laissez-faire” model, and then shifting toward triple helix model.

What are the incentives faced by local officials in China? Without democratic institutions, there is no mechanism for local residents to exercise "voice". Given the hukou registration system, local residents have little opportunity to threaten "exit" if they are unhappy with local taxes and spending. This paper explores an alternative source of incentives, starting from the premise that local officials aim to maximize the jurisdiction's fiscal residual (profits), equal to local tax revenue minus expenditures on public services. In a Tiebout setting with mobile households, this objective should lead to efficient provision. What happens, though, if firms and economic activity but not people are mobile? The paper examines the incentives faced by local Chinese officials in this context, and argues that the forecasted behavior helps to explain both the successes and the problems arising from local government activity in China.