Local Elites in Post-Mao China

192 Pages·2018·2.506 MB·English

by  Yingjie Guo (editor)

Local Elites in Post-Mao China
ThisbookprovidesfreshinsightsintothestudyofChineseelitesatthecounty
level and below. By shifting the analytical focus onto the agency of elites at
the local level and away from the institutional structures within which they
operate, it fills a number of significant gaps in the field.
In particular, this book addresses the lacunae through an empirically rich
and diverse set of case studies. It proceeds from the premise that the study of
local elites can be most fruitful through examining their relations with each
other and with the groups that wield power in the community. Particularly
pertinent to the analyses are three major relations, namely the relationship
between the elites and their environment, between particular types of elites,
and between the locality and the upper and lower scales. Ultimately, it con-
cludes that these relations are not only essential to understanding local elites
in post-Mao China but also in accounting for socio-political change and in
distinguishing China from other types of societies.
As a studyof local elites in China, this book will be useful to students and
scholars of Chinese politics, political sociology and Chinese Studies in
general.
Yingjie Guo is Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Sydney,
Australia. His recent publications include Unequal China: The Political
Economy and Cultural Politics (with Wanning Sun, Routledge, 2013) and
HandbookofClassandStratificationinthePeople’sRepublicofChina(2015).
Routledge Studies on China in Transition
Series Editor: David S. G. Goodman
Forafulllistofavailabletitles: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-
on-China-in-Transition/book-series/SE0082
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Elaine Jeffreys and SU Gang
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56 Local Elites in Post-Mao China
Yingjie Guo
Local Elites in Post-Mao China
Edited by
Yingjie Guo
Firstpublished2018
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Names:Guo,Yingjie,1957-editor.
Title:Localelitesinpost-MaoChina/[editedby]YingjieGuo.
Description:NewYork:Routledge,2018.|Series:Routledgestudies
onchinaintransition;56|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2017055174|ISBN9780815361169(hardback)|ISBN
9781351117029(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Elite(Socialsciences)–China–History–21stcentury.|Social
classes–China–History–21stcentury.
Classification:LCCHN740.Z9L6832018|DDC305.5/20951–dc23
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ISBN:9780815361169(hbk)
ISBN:9781351117029(ebk)
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byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
List of illustrations vii
List of contributors viii
Local elites in post-Mao China 1
YINGJIEGUO
1 Local cadre elites and policy implementation in
contemporary China 17
ANNAL.AHLERSANDGUNTERSCHUBERT
2 Inside the flower vase: A report on private entrepreneurs’
political participation in a county-level People’s Political
Consultative Conference 39
MINGLUCHEN
3 Village elections and the rise of a new elite: A comparative study
of two north Chinavillages 53
YUSHENGYAO
4 Why did the Party secretary resign? A case studyof village elites’
exit from politics 73
FENGJUNQI
5 Public goods, piety and place: The legitimation strategies of local
business elites in China 88
GRAEMESMITH
6 Urbanising collective land: Localisms, elites and the
industrialisation of the Pearl River Delta 106
LUIGITOMBA
7 Local economic elites and charitable giving 126
BEATRIZCARRILLO
vi Contents
8 How a local growth coalition collapsed: A case studyof an
anti-confiscation movement of private oil investors in a
northwestern Chinese county 149
PENGLU
China’s local elites: The political economyof transition 170
DAVIDS.G.GOODMAN
Index 179
List of illustrations
Figures
5.1 Donors’stelae, Fuqing 92
5.2 Liquor museum, Benghai 97
5.3 Buddhist power pole, Benghai 98
5.4 Village church, Fuqing 100
Table
2.1 Distribution of members and private entrepreneur members in
XCounty PPCC 44
Contributors
Anna L. Ahlersis Associate Professorof Modern Chinese Societyand Politics
at the University of Oslo. Trained in sinology and political science her
research interests include the administrative system, local governance and
policy implementation in China, as well as the comparative analysis of
value patterns and inclusion formulas in authoritarian regimes. Her recent
publications include Rural Policy Implementation in Contemporary China:
New Socialist Countryside (Routledge, 2014).
Beatriz Carrillo is an associate professor at the Department of China Studies,
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. Her broad research interest is in
social development and social change in contemporary China. Her work
has looked at social inclusion of migrant workers in small towns, welfare
and health reform, and the role of philanthropy in welfare services provi-
sion. She is author of Small Town China: Rural Labour and Social Exclu-
sion (Routledge, 2011), and co-editor of China’s Changing Welfare Mix:
Local Perspectives (Routledge, 2011) and of China’s Peasants and Work-
ers: Changing Class Identities (Routledge, 2012).
Minglu Chen is a senior lecturer in the Department of Government and
International Relations at the University of Sydney. Her research con-
centrates on social and political change in China, especially the interaction
between entrepreneurs and the state. She is the author of Tiger Girls:
Women and Enterprises in the People’s Republic of China (Routledge,
2011).
Feng Junqi is an assistant professor at the School of Political Science and
Public Administration, China University of Political Science and Law. He
earned his PhD in sociology at Peking University. His thesis, entitled
Zhongxian Ganbu (Cadres of Zhongxian), is a detailed case studyof career
patterns of county-level cadres.
David S.G. Goodman is Professor of China Studies at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liver-
pool University in Suzhou, China, where he is also Head of Humanities
and Social Sciences. His research focuses on local social and political
List of contributors ix
change in China. He is the author most recentlyof Class in Contemporary
China (2014) and editor of the Handbook of the Politics of China (2015).
Yingjie Guo is Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Sydney. His
research interests include class discourses and cultural politics in the
People’s Republic of China and cultural nationalism in the post-Mao era.
His recent publications include Unequal China: The Political Economy and
Cultural Politics (with Wanning Sun, Routledge, 2013), Handbook of Class
and Stratification in the People’s Republic of China (2015) and Local Elites
in Post-Mao China (Routledge, forthcoming).
Peng LU is an associate professor at Institute of Sociology,Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences. He earned his PhD degree in sociology at Tsinghua
University in 2010. He worked at New York University Abu Dhabi as a
postdoctoral research fellow from 2011 to 2012. He works in the fields of
social stratification and class analysis, business–government relationships,
Chinese entrepreneurship, and comparative studies in post-communist and
new emerging economies. He holds several vital academic posts, including
under-secretary-general of the Committee of Social Stratification and
Social Mobilityof Chinese Sociology Association, and secretary-in-general
of the Research Center for Private Entrepreneurs of Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences. He is also the managing director of Chinese Private
Entrepreneur Survey, a nationwide surveyconducted every twoyears since
1993.
Graeme Smith is a Senior Lecturer in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific
Affairs at the Australian National University. He is also the host of The
Little Red Podcast. His research has explored the demand for organic
produce in Chinese urban centres, the political economy of agricultural
service delivery, the role of rural cadres in China’s development, and the
persistence of informal land markets in rural China. He also studies
Chinese investment in the Asia-Pacific region, with ongoing projects in
Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and Myanmar. His journal articles
appear in the China Journal, Pacific Affairs, Asian Studies Review and the
Journal of Peasant Studies.
Gunter Schubert is Professor of Greater China Studies at the Institute of
Asian and Oriental Studies’ Department of Chinese and Korean
Studies, University of Tübingen. He is also the founder and director of
the European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan at this uni-
versity. His research covers local governance and policy implementation
in the People’s Republic of China, reform of China’s private sector and
state–business relations, cross-strait political economy and economic
integration, and Taiwan domestic politics. His latest publications
include Taiwan and the ‘China Impact’: Challenges and Opportunities
(Routledge, 2016) and The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary
Taiwan (Routledge, 2016).