Achieving Revolutionary Work in the Crevice (Pre-Recorded)

• In Event: How the State Deals with Opposition

Abstract

Achieving Revolutionary Work in the Crevice
-Allying Feminist Bureaucrats in an Authoritarian China


Passage of the “Anti-Domestic Violence Law of the People’s Republic of China” in Dec. 2015 and the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Administration of Activities of Overseas Non-Governmental Organizations within the Territory of China” in Jan. 2017 signaled that the central government would regulate gender group activities in the campaign against domestic violence. This paper argues that the theory of social capital needs to be revised to include a discussion of shared beliefs in order to capture the interaction between the state and gender groups in an authoritarian regime.

Women’s groups in China now have access to shape public policy regarding domestic violence issues. However, the campaign against domestic violence depends on major support from international donors. Thus, the passage of the INGO Act has immediately affected the operations of gender groups. This new act made two significant changes to the relationship between the state and gender groups in the campaign against domestic violence. First, these new acts regulate the activities of INGOs, which means that INGOs are required to register with the government and report on which issues they are working on. However, through the end of 2020, no INGOs have identified domestic violence as their primary issue. Second, if gender groups can no longer rely on the support of international donors, they can only rely on domestic sources. Doing so may result in more changes in the relationship between the state and gender groups.

Using multiple interviews with 36 activists from 26 gender groups and 12 government officials during field research from 2015 to 2019, this paper argues that by raising the bureaucrats’ awareness of and identification with gender equality, gender groups are building alliances with feminist bureaucrats. This alliance has helped gender groups to survive oppression from the state.

In addition, this paper will present the reasons for revising the theory of “social capital” to add one significant factor: shared beliefs with mutual trust and reciprocal benefits that capture the interactions between femocrats and gender groups in an authoritarian regime. Two related questions are raised and answered in this paper. First, how can the formation of femocrats be possible? Second, what kind of implications for state-social groups relations can we offer after the emergence of this new alliance? Only by responding to these two inquires will we have a better understanding of the changing dynamics of state-society relationship in an authoritarian regime.

Author

• Weiting Wu, Shih Hsin University