This book examines how the Chinese state responds to the increasingly diverse civil society and maintains regime stability in a changing society. In recent years, the Chinese leadership has demonstrated great capability of adapting and developing sophisticated mechanisms of social control. The chapters in this book cover a wide range of these mechanisms, including co-opting social forces, managing population and migration, as well as controlling the media, trade unions, the internet, non-governmental organisations, and the cultural industries. The authors also discuss challenges the government is about to face and possible adjustments.

The State and New Social Forces:

• The Chinese Leadership and the Internet (Lye Liang Fook and Yang Yi)
• Managing Social Media in China: A Fresh Campaign Against Internet Celebrities (Chen Gang)
• China’s Crackdowns on “Internet Rumours” and “Illegal” Internet Publicity Activities (Wu Mei)
• Non-Governmental Organisations and Government in China: Enemies or Allies? (Wong Man Lai, Sonia)

The State and Social Reforms:

• Chinese Trade Unions: Development and Dilemmas (Qi Dongtao and Huang Jingyang)
• China’s Hukou Reform: New Guidelines and Implications (Zhao Litao)
• Improving Local Governance without Democratisation: Community Building in Shanghai (Shi Fayong)
• China’s Initiatives in “Social Management” (Shan Wei)

The State and Institutional Changes:

• The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference: Co-opting Social and Political Forces in a One-Party State (Yew Chiew Ping)
• Cultural Institutional Reform and the Changing Society in China (Zhong Sheng)
• Religions and Chinese Socialism: China’s Religious Policies Since the 1990s (Lai Hongyi)