Explaining the expansion of the NGO sector in China: Through the lense of adaptive corporatist governance

Abstract

What explains the exponential growth of the number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in China during the recent decades? Moving beyond the extant literature that focuses on the strategic relationship between NGOs and the local state, this article argues that the growth can be also attributed to the central state which has focused on the promotion of different types of NGOs throughout time. The proactive role of the central state has become more conspicuous under the Xi Jinping administration where the party‐state plays a more active role in maneuvering the growth of a service‐oriented third sector. This adaptive strategy has led to the counterintuitive phenomenon of an increase in institutional space for NGOs in authoritarian China, especially the social service‐oriented NGOs in recent years. This article draws from theories of institutional change to explain the process through which the central state has expanded institutional space for NGOs throughout time.

The agency of small states in the United States‐China rivalry

“…delve into topics such as China's perceptions of US credibility (Lim & Cottam, 2024); influence of economic actors on Chinese foreign policy (Zhao, 2024); and the expansion of China's NGO sector (Song, 2024). We hope that our readers appreciates this focus but also encourages other researchers to maintain a critical gaze to China's regional and global importance as well as how it significantly shapes the geopolitical and geoeconomic landscape of Asia and the rest of the world.…”