China

JCC — pp. 1-19 2026-06-22 Original A Risk-Averse Principal-Agent Framework: Private Security Companies in China’s Overseas Interest Protection Chuchu Zhang, Yinuo Liu, Yixiong Huang

GOV 39/3 2026-06-19 Original The Safety Tether: How China Manages Civil Society Through Lawfare Timothy Hildebrandt, Blake Miller Abstract ABSTRACT How do authoritarian regimes benefit from civil society organizations' expertise and capacity while mitigating the potential risks they pose? Using machine learning and interrupted time series modeling of an original custom‐annotated dataset of all historical NGO registrations in China, we find that NGO policy is unevenly implemented. This unevenness, however, is not random. China uses NGO registration policies to facilitate local risk utility tradeoffs in line with threat perceptions and governance needs. This, we argue, is a form of lawfare—using legal means to achieve political or repressive ends. Examining a 2013 policy shift, we find local governments relax sponsorship requirements more in policy domains with low state capacity and less where civil society poses a threat, tailoring national mandates to shape local conditions. We show how lawfare is a complex instrument providing local flexibility in repression and cooptation of civil society, under the guise of routine legal and administrative procedures.

PMR — pp. 1-34 2026-06-16 Original When boards look like women: gender representation and women’s services in China’s social work organizations

CQ — pp. 1-13 2026-06-11 Original The Cultural Root of Gendered Social Network Segregation in China Anning Hu Abstract Abstract This report examines gender differences in trust-based social networks in contemporary China. Using data collected from a uniquely designed survey, respondents rate the trustworthiness of 24 prototypical social roles, enabling our construction of gender-specific networks. Community detection analysis reveals a tripartite structure in men’s networks – older-generation kin, same-generation kin and non-kin – versus a simpler kin/non-kin split among women. Two explanatory pathways are tested: cultural dispositions and life chance access. Matching analyses suggest cultural orientation as the primary driver: when men and women both embrace traditional ideas to the same degree, their network partitioning differences cease to exist. Further analyses suggest that the gender difference in social network partitioning lies in the fact that men are more traditionally oriented than women. This study highlights a gendered cultural configuration in which men appear relatively more “traditional” and women more “modern” as played out through gendered forms of social networking.

JCC — pp. 1-16 2026-06-07 Original Negotiating Life Rhythms in Accelerated China – A Case Study of the ‘Anti-Social Clock’ Online Group

JPART — 2026-06-05 Original Awareness, costs, and take-up of social benefits: evidence from a field experiment in China Wenchi Wei, Xin Chen, Xing Ni

CQ — pp. 1-17 2026-06-04 Original The Afterlife of Problem Judgments: Case Review, Discipline and Judicial Accountability in China Kwai Hang Ng, Peter C.H. Chan Abstract Abstract This article examines the reality of “let the adjudicator judge” by investigating how Chinese judges are held accountable for their judgments under the expanded ex post case review system. We examine the first three years of the implementation of this headline initiative in a grassroots court (Court T) located in a major city in China. Our data include the internal quarterly reports produced by the court’s case review committee and interviews with judges. The assessments went beyond legal analysis, commenting on matters such as work ethic, diligence and moral sensibilities. Frontline judges view the review system as subjective and arbitrary. The new mechanism, however, alters the power dynamics between senior judges and their subordinates. While frontline judges no longer require pre-approval from senior judges, they rely on the goodwill of those same seniors to navigate the review process. Within this ostensibly freer framework, frontline judges are subjected to a more diffuse but pervasive form of discipline. Our analysis reveals how the adjudication committee, far from being sidelined, has shifted its role, concentrating ex ante supervision on a minority of difficult cases while holding judges accountable through ex post reviews of flawed judgments. The article further underscores the challenges of disentangling legal analysis from political supervision in a framework of authoritative legality.

CQ 266 pp. 325-344 2026-06-04 Original Bureaucratic Restructuring and the State-led (De-)Financialization of Local Governance in China Xuchen Zhang, Fenghua Pan Abstract Abstract State-led financialization has emerged as a salient feature of local governance in China, yet it remains underexplored through the lens of bureaucratic restructuring. This paper traces the evolution of local financial agencies since 2002 through four distinct stages: local financial offices ( jinrongban ), financial bureaus ( jinrongju ), financial regulatory bureaus ( jinrong jianguanju ) and financial commissions ( jinrongwei ). Initially, local governments established jinrongban to harness financial capital for regional development. By proactively connecting local firms with capital markets to facilitate corporate listings, they embedded financial logic into local governance, reflecting local state-led financialization. Subsequently, the central government formalized these bodies into jinrongju with expanded mandates, deepening state-led financialization. Later, it systematically devolved regulatory responsibilities and renamed them jinrong jianguanju , elevating regulatory functions to a top priority, illustrating how the central government selectively steered the direction of financialization. Ultimately, provincial agencies were reorganized into jinrongwei and stripped of development functions, while city-level counterparts were largely closed, signifying a shift towards central state-led de-financialization. This trajectory was driven by shifting central–local dynamics, as early bottom-up initiatives were superseded by top-down control. The bureaucratic restructuring examined in this study offers new insights into the state-led (de-)financialization of local governance in China.

JCC — pp. 1-17 2026-06-02 Original Filtered Policy Implementation: Evidence from Rural China Suyuan He, Weiye Wang Abstract Through tracing incidents of agricultural product looting, this paper reveals the political logic behind local governments’ paradoxical behavior of promoting farmland scaling-up while marginalizing smallholders under the potential political threat of deviating from central directives. This dilemma stems from the evolution of bureaucratic evaluation arrangements and broader societal changes. Under increasing pressure on target assessments and supervision, local governments resort to measures including exploiting smallholders’ welfare to fulfil compulsory agricultural production targets, despite the fact that both production and welfare are two-fold of the integral goal of the state’s strategy. These practices have led to the collapse of traditional agricultural communities and heightened conflicts between local residents and nonlocal large-scale producers, reshaping grassroots agrarian production patterns profoundly and irreversibly.

PMR — pp. 1-38 2026-06-01 Original The impact of timebanking on volunteering behaviors Khaldoun AbouAssi, Rui Wang, Ge Xin Abstract Global declines in formal volunteering have prompted interest in alternative mechanisms like timebanking. This study investigates the impact of timebanking on future volunteering intentions using a between-subjects randomized survey experiment (n= 361) in Shanghai, China. Participants exposed to a timebanking vignette were nearly three times more likely to express high-frequency volunteering intentions than the control group. This positive effect was most pronounced among frequent volunteers with strong intrinsic satisfaction, but attenuated among self-interested respondents. These findings suggest that institutionalized, non-monetary incentives can increase willingness to participate without undermining intrinsic motivation.