Shifting Central-Local Relations in Post-Reform China: Case Study of a Migrant Community in Beijing

Previous debates on changing central-local relations in post-reform China imply the presence of diverse patterns of local governmental responses to central policies, demonstrating that post-reform interaction between central power and emerging local forces has not resulted in uniform patterns. Conse...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Development and society 2002-06, Vol.31 (1), p.23-51
Main Author: Jeong Jong-Ho
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alliances
Center-Local Relations in Asia
Cities
Demolition
Economic reform
Government bureaucracy
Government officials
Government relations
Migrant communities
Municipal governments
Provincial government
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Summary:Previous debates on changing central-local relations in post-reform China imply the presence of diverse patterns of local governmental responses to central policies, demonstrating that post-reform interaction between central power and emerging local forces has not resulted in uniform patterns. Consequently, in order to evaluate the impact of economic reforms upon the reconfigurations of central-local relations in the post-Mao China, greater emphasis must be given to the ethnographic research on the changing patterns of interaction between central power and local forces. In line with this perspective, this paper explores the dynamic interactions between central power and local challenge in the newly created urban space of the “Zhejiangcun” (Zhejiang Village), the largest migrant settlement in Beijing. The emergence of unofficial migrant communities has profoundly altered the central-local dynamics in major urban areas through the formation of alternative sources of income, networks, and authority for the new social forces as well as for local state officials. With both cultural capital based on kinship and native-place ties and economic capital based on increasing market penetration, a significant number of migrant groups have created their own “non-state space” in the postreform city. Rather than the continuance of the monopolizing central power, this entrenchment of non-state power and space by the migrant population gives birth to multiple local centers of power. Therefore this paper aims to examine how alternative forms of local power and authority have emerged to renegotiate the domination of central power, by exploring a highly contested renegotiation process in the Zhejiangcun where economic power, social space, and political alliance intersect to reconfigure the central-local relationship within the increase of market influences.
ISSN:1598-8074