Table Of ContentSocial Development Experiences in China
Yong Gao
Ying Wu
The State and
Society of China
A Century Long Ensemble of “Great Power”
and “New Citizens”
Social Development Experiences in China
ThisbookseriesbringstogetherthelatestresearchresultsofChinesesociologiststo
summarize and analyse the process, mechanism and experiences of China’s social
development since the economic system reform. The analyses are tackled by
looking into seven inter-relationships that are most often discussed among
sociologists in observing the social transition in China: the relationship between
thestateandsociety;therelationshipbetweenthestateandmarket;therelationship
between the state and peasants, the relationship between the central and local
governments;therelationshipbetweengovernmentandenterprises;therelationship
between urban and rural areas; the relationship between labour and capital.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15691
Yong Gao Ying Wu
(cid:129)
The State and Society
of China
“ ”
A Century Long Ensemble of Great Power
“ ”
and New Citizens
123
Yong Gao YingWu
National Institute ofSocial Development National Institute ofSocial Development
ChineseAcademy of Social Sciences ChineseAcademy of Social Sciences
Beijing Beijing
China China
Translated by Xiaoming Zhou, the School of Political Science and Public Administration of
WuhanUniversity
ISSN 2520-1557 ISSN 2520-1565 (electronic)
Social Development Experiences inChina
ISBN978-981-10-6661-0 ISBN978-981-10-6662-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6662-7
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Contents
1 The Issue of “State and Society” in Chinese Historical
Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 The Existed Framework: “State” and “Civil Society” as
an Entity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Historical Context and Native Notion: “Empower State”
and “Make People Enlightened” as a Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.1 Exploration of Reformists’ Thought: A State
of “Enlightening the People” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.2 Practical Exploration During the Era of Republic
of China: Social Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.3 The Typical Way of CPC: “Mass Line” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3 Analytical Perspective: Identity, Organization
and Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.3.1 Social Identity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.3.2 Organizational Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3.3 Operational Means. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.4 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2 1949—1978: Social Integration and Mass Mobilization . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.1 Classes: Class Division and Ideological Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.1.1 “Class Identity” and Identification of Identity . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.1.2 “Class Consciousness” and People Transformation . . . . . . 25
2.1.3 Digestion of Class Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2 Organization: Establish Units and Collect Resources. . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2.1 The Establishment of Unit System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.2.2 The Establishment of Cooperatives and People’s
Communes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.2.3 Concentration of Resources and Unity of Interests. . . . . . . 43
v
vi Contents
2.3 Movement: Promoting Work and Resolving Contradictions. . . . . . 46
2.3.1 “To Play the Enthusiasm of the Masses”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.3.2 “Rely on Consciousness and Voluntary of Masses” . . . . . . 50
2.3.3 “Accept Criticism of the Masses”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
2.4 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3 1979—1992: Decentralization of Power, Transfer of Profits
and Germination of Interests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.1 Interest: Promotion and Diversification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.1.1 The Initiative of Interests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.1.2 The Interests of Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.1.3 The Gradual Opening of Private Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.2 Enterprise and Organization: Invigoration and Autonomy . . . . . . . 68
3.2.1 Rural Areas: Implementation of Household
Responsibility System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.2.2 City: The Restoration and Transmutation of Unit
System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
3.2.3 The Rise of Community Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
3.3 Transformation of Functions: Regulation and Demarcation . . . . . . 80
3.3.1 Strengthen Rule of Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
3.3.2 Standardization and Publicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.3.3 Modification and Overhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.4 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
4 1993—2002: Adjustment, Transformation and Diversified
Differentiation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.1 Mobility of Social Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.1.1 Laid-off Workers: From Unit to Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
4.1.2 Into the City: From Rural to Urban . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.1.3 Going to Business: From Within the System to
Outside the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.2 Adjustment of Organizational Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.2.1 Community Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.2.2 Management of Social Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.2.3 Villagers’ Autonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.3 Exploration of Governance Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
4.3.1 Adaptive Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
4.3.2 Guide Self-management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
4.3.3 Globalization Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
4.4 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Contents vii
5 From 2003 till Now: Livelihood Strategy and Participating
Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
5.1 Mobility and Differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
5.1.1 Rapid Urban and Rural Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
5.1.2 Class Differentiation Intensified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5.1.3 Enhancement of Awareness of Rights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
5.2 Social Organization and Participation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
5.2.1 Social Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
5.2.2 Virtual Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
5.2.3 Social Coordination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
5.3 People’s Livelihood Strategy and Project Operation . . . . . . . . . . . 159
5.3.1 Scientific Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
5.3.2 System Operation by Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
5.3.3 Technical Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
5.4 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
6 Enforcement of State Ability and Stimulation of Social
Vitality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
6.1 Development and Achievements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
6.1.1 Social Identity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
6.1.2 Organizational Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
6.1.3 Operational Means. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
6.2 Difficulties and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
6.2.1 The Dilemma of Citizenship Construction. . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
6.2.2 Constraints of Administerization of Social
Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
6.2.3 The Multiple Challenges of Social Organization . . . . . . . . 182
6.3 Inheritance and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
6.3.1 Activate Historical Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
6.3.2 To Attract Social Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
6.3.3 Governance Process to Openness and
Inclusiveness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Chapter 1
“ ”
The Issue of State and Society
in Chinese Historical Context
1.1 The Existed Framework: “State” and “Civil Society”
as an Entity
When analyzing the relationship of “state and society”, the first question that one
mayaskiswhethertheterm“stateandsociety”originatedfromwesterntheoretical
and analytical framework, which established its foothold in Chinese social science
in just recent twenty years, can be applied to describe and analyze Chinese expe-
rienceofsocialchangeinalmostacentury.Onemayalsoaskwhetherthewestern
theoretical context can be rigidly imposed to Chinese practical experience. These
questions were reflected and alerted constantly by Chinese scholars when the term
“state and society” as an analytical framework was introduced into China.1 At the
beginning of 1990s, Professor Deng Zhenglai, when elaborating the current “civil
society issue”, pointed out that scholars should distinguish the problems in the
processofwesterndevelopmentandwesterntheoriesseektoanswerfromthosein
Chinesedevelopment.Scholarsshouldalsoavoidtakingitforgrantedthatwestern
theoriescanbeappliedtojudgeChinesesocialfactsinaneither/orfashionwithout
be analyzed in a critical way or tested by Chinese experience.2
One analytical framework of “state and society” considers them as formed
entities—nationstateandcivilsociety,theresearchcoreofwhichistherelationand
interaction of the two entities, for example, Baron Giddens focused on explaining
how the state-society integrated structure was formed from state-society separated
structurethroughmajorhistoricalchanges,andJürgenHabermasfocusedonpublic
policy becoming an intermediate zone that connects the two entities. But the pre-
condition of the research is that both state and society has already formed.
1Zhiping[1].
2Zhenglai[2].
©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.andChinaSocialSciencesPress2018 1
Y.GaoandY.Wu,TheStateandSocietyofChina,SocialDevelopment
ExperiencesinChina,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6662-7_1
2 1 TheIssueof“StateandSociety”inChineseHistoricalContext
Just as Wei Angde said, since the mid 1960s, Chinese research has closely
correlatedtoresearchofSovietandEasternEuropeanpoliticalsystem,3andgained
itsstatusincomparisonwithwesternsocietyandsovietandEasternEurope.Atthat
background, western scholars got interested into the conflict and fight for interests
between different groups intraditional socialist system. The scholars observed that
even though in the traditional socialist system there was a lack of western com-
petition system, there were numerous interest groups competing and conflicting
witheachotherforinterest,invisibleinterestgroupsandinvisibleintereststruggle,
means to influence governmental decision-making from bottom to up by common
people,andnumerousbargain.Especiallyfrom1989to1991,thesovietandeastern
European social transformation is considered as a corollary to the fight of interest.
The analytical framework of “state and society” mentioned above, which focused
on the interaction and competition between the two formed entities, state and civil
society,wasthenintroducedintoChineseresearchandresearcherstriedtofindthe
sign of the rise of civil society in Chinese society.
Thiskindofresearchperspectivemakessenseinthatitcanrevealtheresolution
mechanismandinternalrestrictionsofnumerousinterestconflictsinChinesesocial
system. But this research framework has its inherent limitations. For example, this
research usually makes simple comparison between Chinese practical experiences
and western definitions, selects those committed to western definition in compli-
cated Chinese experience and gives them intensified research, and accordingly
ignores some substantial aspects to Chinese development.4 Liang Zhiping also
pointedoutthat,“Chinesescholars,officialsandpopulace,ashistoricalparticipants
andsocialactorshavetheirownunderstandingandnotionon‘society’andrelations
between state and society. This understanding and notion cannot be simply
explained or even replaced by ‘civil society’. Due to ignorance of conceptual
aspectsofthe actors, theresult isthatwestern definition is‘imposed’ toresearch a
totallydifferentsocialpractice.”5Inotherwords,theriskofthisresearchliesinthat
itusuallygivessimplecomparisonbetweenChineseandwesternexperience,labels
some Chinese phenomenon and actions as “civil society”, but cannot reveal the
operational logic and internal regulation.
In addition, a more deficiency of this analytical researching framework is the
limitation of its historical perspective. Even though the framework makes sense to
some degree in the research of recent Chinese practice, the remoter we research in
history, the less capable the framework is. The reason for this is, above all, that
modernChinesehistoryisalsoahistoryofformationofstateandsociety.Secondly,
theformativehistoryofstateandsocietyisfarfrombeingexplainedbytheabstract
interaction(eitherfight,compromiseorcooperate)ofthetwoentities,butinsteadis
usually determined by some broad factors and issues. These factors and issues
eventuallyshapebothentitiessimultaneously.Thewesternframeworkmayrestrict
3Walder[3].
4Zhenglai[2].
5Zhiping[1].
