China

JCC — pp. 1-22 2026-07-09 Original Chinese State-Owned Enterprise Workers at the Margins: Evidence from a Sichuan Case Study Shan Huang Abstract This article examines workers’ changes in a Sichuan state-owned enterprise established during Third Front initiative. Taking qualitative research methods based on in-depth interviews and fieldwork, it demonstrates how SOE reforms reshaped workers’ capital resource and social status, transforming the formerly secure working class into wage-dependent labour through workers’ narratives on their work and life histories. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of capital and Marxist class analysis, the study tracks workers’ capital losses through welfare shrinkage, declining skill value, and work-unit network disintegration, explaining how these shifts represent changed labour relations, as institutional protection gave way to market control. The case points out widening divisions among workers, indicating a fragmented working class and a redefined class structure in post-reform China.

CQ — pp. 1-23 2026-07-06 Original The Emergence of Local Digital Platform Vehicles in China Wenjia Song, Tianguang Meng Abstract Abstract As China’s land-financed development model faces increasing constraints, local governments have turned to public data as a new strategic resource. However, there is a governance puzzle with public data: how can the state mobilize a resource whose ownership remains legally and politically unresolved? This article examines Local Digital Platform Vehicles (LDPVs), hybrid corporations that have proliferated since the early 2010s. Drawing on data gathered from extensive interviews and an original nationwide dataset of LDPVs from 2014 to 2025, we argue that these entities enable local governments to exercise “control without ownership” by asserting authority over data flows rather than through formal property rights. Internally, control is achieved through co-shareholding, task approval, personnel and strategic partner selection, which bind market actors to local developmental objectives. Externally, LDPVs extract value by internalizing subcontractor profits, pursuing data financialization and shifting towards platform-based models. The article shows how China’s local developmental state is developing new organizational instruments for governance in the digital age.

JPART — 2026-07-06 Original Playing with time: data manipulation within the performance evaluation cycle Jiayuan Li, Zhibin Chen, Manqian Cui, Xuelian Zhang Abstract Abstract Understanding why public organizations manipulate performance data has become an essential theme in public administration scholarship. While prior research has extensively explored the individual and contextual drivers of gaming, the temporal dimension—specifically when manipulation occurs—remains remarkably underexplored. Moving beyond the impact of sporadic political events, this study examines the routine, institutionalized rhythms of the bureaucratic calendar. Utilizing satellite nighttime light data as an objective benchmark to detect distortion in officially reported GDP across 271 Chinese cities (2013–2020), we uncover a systematic, cyclical pattern of strategic gaming. Manipulation is substantial in the first quarter, consistent with political pressure for a “good start,” recedes during the middle of the year; and surges to its annual peak in the fourth quarter (Q4) as the final performance assessment looms. Furthermore, we show that this Q4 effect is contingent on local context: cities with lower fiscal autonomy and reduced marketization exhibit a significantly greater propensity to inflate year-end figures. By uncovering a routine form of manipulation embedded in bureaucratic practices, our study advances theories of performance gaming and sheds light on the strategic use of time in public management.

JCC — pp. 1-20 2026-07-05 Original “Top-Down Communitarianism”: The Purposes and Limitations of China’s Point System Governance

GOV 39/3 2026-07-04 Original Informational Crowding‐Out? Targeted Transparency, Environmental Nonprofits, and Public Concern in China

PMR — pp. 1-25 2026-06-30 Original Interagency collaboration, broker organization, and bureaucratic responsiveness: how public agencies fix complex citizen requests on digital government platforms? Yao Liu, Wenting Yang

PMR — pp. 1-29 2026-06-29 Original Forged through forces: configurations to digital policy attention in local governments Tao Wang, Chen Zhong, Ge Wang, Liumiao Qin Abstract Although governments’ digital policy attention is pivotal for effective digital governance, the mechanisms shaping attention remain insufficiently understood. Drawing on an integrated view of institutional environment, task environment, and resource endowment, we analyse 272 Chinese prefecture-level cities using a hybrid fsQCA – regression method to examine how multiple conditions jointly shape attention to digital transformation. We find that normative pressure, fiscal capacity, economic conditions, and digital infrastructure provide the foundation for high policy attention. Beyond this base, we identify three configurations across these dimensions: capability alignment, where leaders with technocratic backgrounds and digital culture jointly foster endogenous commitment; pressure compliance, where coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures jointly drive policy attention; and peer learning adaptation, where governments enhance attention through horizontal emulation when top-down mandates are weak. Regression analyses show that pressure compliance exerts the strongest influence on digital policy attention. These findings reveal configurational dynamics underlying digital governance.

JCC — pp. 1-17 2026-06-28 Original Managing Exposure: China’s Foreign Policy Adaptation to Overseas Conflict Risks Pascal Abb Abstract China’s global economic expansion has resulted in a major foothold in conflict-prone regions. This exposure drives an increasingly active approach to risk mitigation and asset protection, and a gradual shift in Chinese security policy towards more interventionist measures. Yet how these risks are assessed in China, and what role they play in shaping its global security agency, remains understudied. This paper traces Chinese discourses on overseas conflict risk management and resulting policy shifts. It examines how Chinese sources describe the problem, rate risks across distinct environments, and propose measures to improve risk management and asset protection. It argues that outcomes like the Global Security Initiative are best understood as adaptations to these risks, revealing clues about China’s emergence as a global security provider.

CQ — pp. 1-17 2026-06-25 Original How Public Opinion Monitoring Services Are Reshaping Chinese Media Haiyan Wang, Chunyan Huang, Liangen Yin Abstract Abstract Faced with the pressures of digital transformation, media organizations in China are undergoing a “think-tank turn,” in which Public Opinion Monitoring Services (POMS) are playing an integral role. This study uses POMS as a case to examine the digital transformation of Chinese media organizations and to explore the broader shifts in the political economy of Chinese media in the digital age. Combining in-depth interviews, fieldwork and analysis of secondary documents, this qualitative research study identifies the emergence of consulting as a “third role” of Chinese media, supplementing the traditional roles of news reporting and ideological propagation. This new role caters to the government’s need to govern the online space and manage public opinion through three primary operations: “timely firefighting” against dissident voices, “regular monitoring” of public opinion and the “periodic training” of information officials. In this context, POMS not only enable media organizations to navigate financial challenges but also significantly reshape their role and relationship with the state.

APSR — pp. 1-22 2026-06-22 Original Portraits of Power: Facial Appearance and the Tacit Domain of Political Selection in China JUNYAN JIANG, SONGPO YANG Abstract As the epitome of modern, rational organizations, bureaucracies are often believed to select candidates based on rules and reason. We argue that intuitive—and even instinctive—assessments of candidates’ external appearances sometimes underpin seemingly rational and calculated decisions. Using a novel, AI-based algorithm that learns and reproduces human assessments of facial appearances at scale, we examine how perceived facial traits influence the careers of over four thousand mid- and senior-level Chinese officials. We find that officials who look more competent, trustworthy, and less aggressive enjoy significantly better promotion prospects and lower purge risk than their peers. Warmth-related traits (e.g., trustworthiness and non-aggressiveness) are especially valued at higher-level promotions and for male candidates. Additional analyses, including conjoint experiments with real officials, demonstrate that appearances’ influence over selection preferences is comparable to performance or political connections. These findings challenge the prevailing meritocratic and relation-based theories of bureaucratic selection and highlight the role of impressions in the workings of government institutions.