Local governments are responsible for dealing with many of the instances of resistance in
China, and an important mode of response which they use is suppression. This article …

Unrest in China, from the dramatic events of 1989 to more recent stirrings, offers a rare
opportunity to consider how popular contention unfolds in places where speech and …

Rural protest leaders in China play a number of roles. Among others, they lead the charge,
shape collective claims, recruit activists and mobilize the public, devise and orchestrate acts …

What precipitated the 2003–06 “high tide” of petitioning Beijing and why did the tide wane?
Interviews and archival sources suggest that a marked increase in petitioners coming to the …

This article proposes two explanations for why public confidence in China's central
authorities has appeared high and stable since the early 1990s. Drawing on interviews with …

Chinese society today is characterized by the coexistence of numerous social conflicts and
social stability. This coexistence reveals the resilience of the Chinese political system. 1 A …

Survey results inflate political trust in China if the observed trust in the central government is
mistaken for the latent trust in the Centre. The target of trust in the country is the Centre …

This article finds that the innovative practice of involving social workers in settling petition
disputes in Shanghai is a kind of “flexible governance” stressing affective care and multi …

This article examines protest, petitioning, lawsuits, open letters, blogging, and other forms of
activism by Chinese veterans. Moving beyond images of heroic soldiers in the official media …

Based on participation observations and interviews with petitioners and petition officials in
Chinese courts, this article analyzes how the petitioning discourse is organized and how it …