中国研究

JCC — pp. 1-19 2026-07-31 Original Poverty in Urban China 2012–2020: Applying an Income-Asset Joint Framework

APSR — pp. 1-12 2026-07-29 Original Is Blood Thicker Than Water(-and-Earth)? Partisanship Geography in Imperial China and the Limits of Quantitative History YAO LIN Abstract Using Wang Anshi’s Reform as a case study, Yuhua Wang’s “Blood is Thicker Than Water” ( American Political Science Review , 2022) argues that geographically dispersed kinship networks incentivize political elites to support the building of a strong state, whereas geographically concentrated kinship networks undermine state building. In this article, I improve the sample with the help of additional historical records and show that the reported correlation fails to replicate when either the control issue or the outlier issue is considered. I then propose two alternative hypotheses on the role of kinship network dispersal in Wang Anshi’s Reform, based on two common explanations of its partisanship geography in Chinese historical scholarship, that is, status competition and policy adaptiveness. After examining those hypotheses respectively, I reflect on the limits of quantitative history that this case illustrates.

PNAS 123/31 pp. e2602426123-e2602426123 2026-07-27 Original Can stimulating ownership increase fertility: Evidence from housing interventions in China Zhang Xin, Dongxue Wu, William A. V. Clark Abstract Declining fertility and the emergence of very low TFR's in the Asian economies has increased the focus on how to change the direction of the fertility trend. Several countries in Europe and Asia have explored a variety of stimulus packages to increase the overall TFR. In this research we review those policies and examine one of those interventions which has the potential to stimulate fertility-the role of access to housing. The core of housing approaches to stimulating fertility is to make housing more accessible and to use various forms of credit assistance with the aim of making ownership easier and more attractive to young families. The research asks how effective are these approaches to reversing the decline in fertility? And, are they a solution to very low fertility? The results provide some evidence that the focus on housing stimulus packages may increase fertility although most successfully for socioeconomically advantaged households.

JCC — pp. 1-18 2026-07-26 Original Care Under Strain: Caregiver Mental Health and Early Childhood Development in Rural China Lei Wang, Chuhan Tang, Kaiwen Guo, Victoria Tang, Tiffany Zhu, Vivian Zhang, Sophia Li, Amelie Ibel, Anabelle Lin, Scott Rozelle

JCC — pp. 1-17 2026-07-24 Original When the Mass Line Encounters the Ground: Public-Oriented Accountability and Frontline Coping in China Huan He Abstract While the consolidation of state control in China is well-documented, less attention has been given to the reinforcement of public-oriented accountability, which emphasizes citizen satisfaction with complaint resolution in government performance assessments. Drawing on statistical data and fieldwork interviews, this study finds that while public-oriented accountability can partially promote substantive government responsiveness by imposing institutional pressure on frontline officials, it also fosters a public perception of an omnipotent government and exacerbates the predicament of grassroots incapacity. This not only traps frontline bureaucrats in administrative burden caused by blame-avoidance strategies, but may also fuel frustration among mobilized citizens with heightened expectations. The findings reveal the institutional sources and constraints of government responsiveness and highlight the potential challenges of operationalizing the mass line to consolidate legitimacy.

CQ — pp. 1-17 2026-07-23 Original Individualization, Relationships and Collective Action Among Migrants in China: Evidence from Rent Strikes Mengfei Ning, Xiaohong Jin Abstract Abstract Based on a field study of the COVID-19 rent reduction actions of a group of self-employed migrants in Zhengzhou, China, this study examines how individualization shaped the relational networks of the migrants, which in turn dynamically influenced the trajectory and outcome of their collective action. The group’s collective action was shaped not by a single relationship but by an instrumental relational network woven from fragmented intra-group ties, fragile local connections, unstable market relations and arms-length government–migrant interactions. The “relational duality” framework proposed here reveals this network’s dual role in contention: shared experiences of external exclusion catalysed internal solidarity and short-term mobilization; however, the network’s inherent instrumentality and vulnerability rendered it highly susceptible to adversaries’ strategic activation of latent competitive boundaries through tactics like co-optation and relational repression, thus triggering a rapid dissolution of solidarity that resulted in the protest fragmenting. These findings enrich an understanding of the micro-dynamics of contentious politics in China and offer a fresh lens for analysing collective action among similar groups that undergo individualization.

JCC — pp. 1-17 2026-07-20 Original Memory in Motion: The Configuration of Korean War Memory in Chinese Popular Representations Xiaowen Cheng, Jinhong Li Abstract China’s Korean War memory moves in and out of view, but rarely returns unchanged. This article asks how Chinese popular representations of the Korean War vary as the foreign relationships embedded in the war shift. It develops a configurational account of wartime memory, emphasizing activation, selection, and mediation across state priorities, nationalist repertoires, and media institutions. Drawing on a near-comprehensive corpus of theatrically released Chinese Korean War films, alongside close readings of influential print and screen texts, it traces three periods: canonization, latency, and security revival. Chinese sacrifice and victory endure; the United States remains central, but negative portrayals of US soldiers become less common; solidarity with North Korea recedes; Soviet participation remains largely unmentioned; and China’s intervention is increasingly framed as national defense.

JCC — pp. 1-16 2026-07-17 Original China’s UN Diplomacy on the Russo-Ukrainian War Vita Golod, Nataliia Mudrenko Abstract This article examines how China conducts its diplomacy on Ukraine within the United Nations framework and assesses whether its stated principles align with its actual behavior. Using corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, and UN voting data from 2014 to 2025 across the United Nation Security Council (UNSC), General Assembly (UNGA), and selected UN technical bodies, it analyzes the relationship between China’s words and its deeds. A comparison with the Palestine/Gaza corpus shows that China applies more attribution and selective framing, challenging the notion of a uniform ‘principled neutrality’. The findings show that China’s abstention doctrine is conditional, and that its UN behavior reflects strategic differentiation across political and technical arenas of global governance.

PMR — pp. 1-34 2026-07-16 Original My workgroup or my desire to serve the society? The influence of workgroup identification and public service motivation on whistleblowing intentions

JCC — pp. 1-18 2026-07-16 Original Cultivated Memories and Selective Nationalism in China: Evidence on the United States and Russia Yu Liu, Tuo Chen Abstract Despite China’s similarly complex modern relationships with both the United States and Russia, contemporary Chinese public opinion is far more favorable toward Russia than toward the United States. Why? Combining observational analysis, survey experiments, and conventional regression, we argue that state regulation of collective memory about the two countries plays a key role in producing this selective nationalism. Using original data from two survey experiments in China, we show that exposure to more balanced historical information, rather than the one-sided narratives promoted by the state, reduces both anti-Americanism and pro-Russian sentiment. We also find that educational attainment, as a vehicle for political indoctrination, is associated with stronger anti-American and pro-Russian views. Our study highlights memory engineering as a powerful instrument of political misinformation.