Karla W. Simon: Civil Society in China: The Legal Framework from Ancient Times to the “New Reform Era”

Excerpt

Amid China’s three and a half decades of economic modernization, a significant development in Chinese society is the rise of civil society organizations (CSOs) that manifest the interests and will of Chinese citizens. More and more Chinese citizens are seeking ways to organize and respond to their changing social needs and convey their rising political concerns. Against the backdrop of China’s ever-changing state-society relations, there has been a burgeoning scholarship on China’s civil society during the last two decades. Many native Chinese scholars and foreign China scholars have written on this subject by contributing their theoretical reflections, historical studies, and empirical examinations to this field. While there is consensus that Chinese CSOs do not fit neatly into the definitions that are commonly used among Western scholars and practitioners, there are widely divergent views on how Chinese CSOs differ from Western CSOs as well as the role of China’s civil society in the country’s political development. …