Nonprofit-Government Relations in Authoritarian China: A Review and Synthesis of the Chinese Literature

• Author: Zhibin Zhang,Chao Guo
• Published date: 01 January 2021
• Date: 01 January 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0095399720934891
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399720934891

Administration & Society

2021, Vol. 53(1) 64 –96

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0095399720934891

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Article

Nonprofit-Government

Relations in

Authoritarian China:

A Review and Synthesis

of the Chinese Literature

Zhibin Zhang1 and Chao Guo2

Abstract

This study provides a comprehensive review and synthesis of the Chinese

literature on nonprofit-government relations. A total of 1,222 nonprofit

research articles have been examined. It assesses the key insights and

contributions of nonprofit-government relations studies across macro-,

meso-, and micro-level. It identifies three important limitations of extant

research: the lack of autonomy (i.e., it is state-guided), indigeneity (i.e., it is

largely an exercise of applying Western theories), and sophistication (i.e.,

it has limited theoretical depth and methodological rigor). The middle-

range approach to theory building is suggested as a most appropriate future

direction to advance research in this area.

Keywords

Chinese nonprofit research, nonprofit-government relations, literature review

Introduction

In the past three decades, Chinese scholars have devoted increasing effort to

investigating various aspects of the emerging nonprofit sector in China, with

1Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA, Australia

2University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

Corresponding Author:

Zhibin Zhang, College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders University, Social Science

South 328, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia.

Email: zhibin.zhang@flinders.edu.au

934891AASXXX10.1177/0095399720934891Administration & SocietyZhang and Guo

research-article2020

Zhang and Guo 65

a special focus on its relationship with the authoritarian government. Largely

unknown outside of China, this burgeoning scholarship has not only accumu-

lated important data on the scope and functions of the sector but also pro-

vided valuable insights into the nonprofit-government relations. However,

relatively little research has reviewed and synthesized this body of knowl-

edge. In fact, the Chinese literature on nonprofit studies is scattered, being

published in numerous journals with different disciplinary focuses and

spreading across multiple disciplines. It has also gone through a series of

paradigm shifts over time, each marked with fundamental changes of key

concepts and assumptions. To better understand nonprofit-government rela-

tions in the most populous country in the world, it is necessary to conduct a

thorough review and synthesis of this fragmented and evolving research.

Moreover, the existing Chinese literature demands a critical assessment to

evaluate its theoretical and methodological rigor, which would help identify

any problems, weaknesses, contradictions, and controversies within the lit-

erature and suggest future research directions.

Motivated by these needs, this article provides a comprehensive review

of the Chinese literature on nonprofit research. Applying a systematic

review method, we search all potential nonprofit research articles published

in relevant Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI) journals from

1994 to 2015, as well as China Nonprofit Review (CNR)1 from its inception

in 2007 to 2015. We then provide a narrative review of the literature on

nonprofit-government relations retrieved from these articles. Our research

has three objectives. First, we provide a comprehensive overview of the

current knowledge on Chinese nonprofits and nonprofit-government rela-

tions. It involves developing a database of relevant research articles pub-

lished in major Chinese journals. Second, through a narrative synthesis and

critical analysis of the literature on nonprofit-government relations, we

identify the key concepts, theories, arguments, findings, and conclusions

that emerge from this body of knowledge. Third, we discuss future direc-

tions in light of its revealed thematic patterns and key issues identified in

the review analysis.

The rest of this article is organized as follows: the second section provides

a concise review of previous literature syntheses and reviews on the subject.

The third section outlines research methods and data sources. The fourth sec-

tion summarizes the general state of Chinese nonprofit studies and especially

the overall themes of research on nonprofit-government relations. The fifth

section presents findings from a detailed synthesis and analysis of Chinese

studies on nonprofit-government relations. The sixth section identifies the

gaps in the Chinese literature and suggests a future agenda. It concludes in

the last section.

66 Administration & Society 53(1)

Review of Relevant Literature Syntheses

Since the mid-1980s, Chinese scholars have begun to examine the evolving

nonprofit sector through a wide range of theoretical and conceptual perspec-

tives. These efforts have brought forth a growing body of Chinese scholar-

ship on nonprofit organizations and nonprofit-government relations.

However, very few reviews of this literature exist. Several studies summa-

rized the research on Chinese nonprofits and their relationship with the gov-

ernment, but their focuses were on the English literature produced by Western

scholars (Hsu, 2013; Lu, 2009; Smith & Zhao, 2016). B. He (1995) con-

ducted perhaps the earliest review of the Chinese literature on civil society

from 1986 to 1992, documenting the emergence and transformation of the

Chinese discourse on civil society. According to B. He (1995), the idea of

civil society was initially embraced by Chinese intellectuals as a means to get

rid of the Maoist totalitarian regime. After the 1989 incident, it shifted to an

antagonist model which views civil society as a strategy to democratize

China through counterbalancing the authoritarian state, then to a mutual sup-

port model that advocates a supportive relationship between the state and

civil society as a more pragmatic tactic for political changes. In a more recent

review of the Chinese literature on civil society since 2006, J. Yu and Zhou

(2012) examined various conceptual and empirical studies via the common

lens of civil society. They found that the recent Chinese literature focuses on

the impact of three factors on the growth of China’s civil society: the unique

institutional environment, the public or social governance policy framework

adopted by the government to regulate society, and the internet. A few review

studies in Chinese also offered similar critical overviews of this body of the

Chinese literature (W. Chen, 2013; Ji, 2013; Tang, 2012).

Notwithstanding the contributions of these prior reviews, they were mostly

narrative surveys of the selected Chinese literature on nonprofit research.

According to Bearman et al. (2012), a traditional narrative literature review

is framed entirely through the perspective of the author. Hence, it may risk

the author’s biases especially in the literature selection. To fully understand

the state and scope of research in a specific field, it is essential to conduct a

systematic review that covers all relevant work and draws conclusions from

the entire or representative literature. Compared with a narrative review, a

systematic review follows transparent, structured and comprehensive

approaches to searching and analyzing publications. It usually involves a

protocol-based coding process that requires two or more reviewers to synthe-

size research findings and reveal the gaps in current research and identify

future direction. Given its advantages, scholars in public administration and

nonprofit studies have been increasingly adopting the systematic literature