governing society in CONTEMPORARY CHINA www.ebook3000.com 9262_9789814618588_tp.indd 29/6/16 2:20 PM May 2, 2013 14:6 BC: 8831 - Probability and Statistical Theory This page intentionally left blank PST˙ws governing society in CONTEMPORARY CHINA edited by YANG Lijun South China University of Technology, China SHAN Wei East Asian Institute, NUS, Singapore World Scientific NEW JERSEY • LONDON • SINGAPORE • BEIJING • SHANGHAI • HONG KONG • TAIPEI • CHENNAI • TOKYO www.ebook3000.com 9262_9789814618588_tp.indd 29/6/16 2:20 PM Published by World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224 USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601 UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Yang, Lijun, 1963– editor | Shan, Wei, editor Title: Governing society in contemporary China / edited by Lijun Yang, South China University of Technology, China, Wei Shan, East Asian Institute, NUS, Singapore Description: Singapore : World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd., [2016] Identifiers: LCCN 2016013679 | ISBN 9789814618588 Subjects: LCSH: China Politics and government | Civil society China | Social control China Classification: LCC JQ1516 G68 2016 | DDC 320.951 dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016013679 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2017 by World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd All rights reserved This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher Desk Editor: Dong Lixi Typeset by Stallion Press Email: enquiries@stallionpress.com Printed in Singapore Lixi - Governing Society in Contemporary China.indd 28-06-16 11:37:51 AM “9x6” b2473 Governing Society in Contemporary China Contents Introduction Part I vii The State and New Social Forces Chapter The Chinese Leadership and the Internet LYE Liang Fook and YANG Yi Chapter Managing Social Media in China: A Fresh Campaign Against Internet Celebrities CHEN Gang 23 China’s Crackdowns on “Internet Rumours” and “Illegal” Internet Publicity Activities WU Mei 41 Non-Governmental Organisations and Government in China: Enemies or Allies? WONG Man Lai, Sonia 57 Chapter Chapter Part II The State and Social Reforms Chapter Chapter 73 Chinese Trade Unions: Development and Dilemmas QI Dongtao and HUANG Jingyang 75 China’s Hukou Reform: New Guidelines and Implications ZHAO Litao 91 www.ebook3000.com b2473_FM.indd v 7/1/2016 3:01:46 PM b2473 vi Governing Society in Contemporary China “9x6” GO V E R NING S O CIE T Y IN C ON T E M P OR A R Y C H I N A Chapter Improving Local Governance without Democratisation: Community-Building in Shanghai SHI Fayong Chapter Part III China’s Initiatives in “Social Management” SHAN Wei The State and Institutional Changes Chapter Chapter 10 Chapter 11 The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference: Co-opting Social and Political Forces in a One-Party State YEW Chiew Ping 109 123 141 143 Cultural Institutional Reform and the Changing Society in China ZHONG Sheng 159 Religions and Chinese Socialism: China’s Religious Policies Since the 1990s LAI Hongyi 181 Index 199 About the Editors 203 b2473_FM.indd vi 7/1/2016 3:01:46 PM “9x6” b2473 Governing Society in Contemporary China Introduction C hina’s rapid and sustainable economic growth in the past three decades has brought the country great wealth and changed the structures of its economy and society, and its people’s lifestyle and their behavioural patterns In terms of its economic structure, China has transformed itself from the Maoist planned economy to an increasingly market-oriented economy and from the domination of the state sector to a mixed economy with the coexistence of different forms of ownerships In terms of social structure, the country has transformed from a fixed society of rural-urban dualism to a mobile and pluralistic one and from an equal society where everyone was equally poor to a divided one where there exists increasingly large income inequality The benefits of the reform and open door policy have not been distributed equally; some social groups and regions have benefited tremendously while others have lost relatively The polarisation of economic interests has also led to pluralistic demands from different social groups The country has witnessed the rise of diverse social interests and social groups which resort to all means to increase their political participation This can be best exemplified by the expansion of religious groups, the development of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the rise of social protests Changes have also occurred in politics too China’s economic development has not resulted in political democracy, as many had expected when the country began its reform and open www.ebook3000.com b2473_FM.indd vii 7/1/2016 3:01:46 PM b2473 viii Governing Society in Contemporary China “9x6” GO V E R NING S O CIE T Y IN C ON T E M P OR A R Y C H I N A door policy Its political structure remains intact and the rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues However, compared to the pre-reform era, changes to Chinese politics are visible, particularly in terms of state-society relations Without doubt, the transition China is experiencing today is unprecedented This transition is taking place in the second largest economy of the world and in the process of the world’s modernisation, globalisation and IT revolution Such a transition is important for not only China itself, but also the entire world Understanding this multifaceted and complicated transition has been a major intellectual challenge for the scholarly community Since its establishment in 1997, East Asian Institute (EAI) has made great efforts in promoting both academic and policy-oriented research on East Asian development, particularly the political, economic and social development of contemporary China and China’s growing economic relations with the region and the world at large This book reflects our latest efforts in understanding changing state-society relations in China In this book, we selected research papers which were previously circulated internally All the papers were updated by their respective authors The focus is on how the state has responded to changing state-society relations In selecting papers, we attempt to cover as many topics as possible with a particular emphasis on changing patterns of interactions between the Chinese state and society We aim to explore how changing state-society interactions have shaped and are reshaping the features of contemporary China Changing State-Society Relations During the era of Maoism, the power structure in China was highly centralised The central government controlled all possible resources Local governments, from the provincial level down to the township level, were weak layers in this structure Chinese society was completely dominated by the state through local governments and government-controlled organisations such as work units and grass-roots b2473_FM.indd viii 7/1/2016 3:01:46 PM “9x6” b2473 Governing Society in Contemporary China I N TR ODU C TI ON ix collectives and student organisations There was no autonomous social organisation Society in a Western sense did not exist and social forces did not have any resources to challenge state power Since the reform and open door policy, changes have occurred in state-society relations Three major structural changes are visible One is power decentralisation between the central and local governments, especially after the tax reform of 1994 While this reform centralised fiscal power, the local government has also gained more autonomous power and responsibility as a separate entity of the administration The second change is power decentralisation from the state to society The economic reform has changed the social structure In rural areas, the household responsibility system replaced collective agriculture In cities, the market system replaced the planned economy Collectives and work units no longer serve as the source of identity and function as a community to provide public goods.1 At the same time, society starts to become diverse, as a consequence of economic development Previously equally poor people are now divided into social groups of different income levels The coexistence of the middle class, the extremely rich and the poor makes China a normal society The urban-rural unitary structure no longer existed People now become mobile, floating between rural and urban areas, and between China and foreign countries In particular, internal migrant workers from rural to urban areas now become a remarkable group in the 21st century China Social organisations such as NGOs and religion groups now have attempted to appeal to different means to express their demands for freedom and individual rights The third change is the exponential rise of information and communication technologies (ICT) in China since the early 1990s This change is important since the state is now no longer able to monopolise information These three changes have inevitably restructured state-society relations in China The phenomenal economic growth has given birth to new Tong Yanqi and Lei Shaohua, Social Protest in Contemporary China, 2003–2010, London and New York, Routledge, 2014, pp 22–23 www.ebook3000.com b2473_FM.indd ix 7/1/2016 3:01:46 PM b2473 x Governing Society in Contemporary China “9x6” GO V E R NING S O CIE T Y IN C ON T E M P OR A R Y C H I N A social groups receptive to a plurality of ideas and norms The spread of the internet and process of marketisation allow them to better articulate their interests and organise themselves than ever before The myriad social issues, popular discontent, religious and ethnic tensions have forced the party-state to respond to social changes Despite radical social changes, the Chinese state continues to be more capable than many other states in the developing world in managing society Among many other strategies, we have identified three main strategies that the Chinese state has responded to social changes First, the Chinese state has pro-actively searched for new control strategies over newly rising social forces Second, it has also searched for new modes of governance over existing social forces and organisations by engaging social institutional reforms Third, it has attempted to reform its own institutions to accommodate social changes In other words, we include in this book three thematic clusters to examine three different types of strategies that the Chinese government has responded to society In the following sections, we narrate these strategies by summarising the papers included in this book The State and New Social Forces Our first thematic cluster looks at how the state has dealt with new social forces Since the reform and open-door policy, Chinese society has experienced unprecedented transition and witnessed the emergence of new social phenomenon and social forces With the rise of new types of social organisation and social phenomenon, the CCP has to formulate new management policies to respond to new challenges from society given the incapacity of conventional social management policy in responding to the new challenges A good example is the government’s responses to online social activities According to the December 2015 CNNIC report, by December 2015, China had 688 million internet users, with a total of 39.51 million new ones The internet penetration rate reached 50.3%, rising 2.4% over the previous year Mobile phone internet users hit 620 million Rural internet users accounted for 28.4% of the total in China, reaching b2473_FM.indd x 7/1/2016 3:01:46 PM