How has China managed to gain its citizens’ compliance in everything from strict COVID controls to land clearing for development? In “Outsourcing Repression,” Lynette H. Ong examines how the Chinese state engages non-state actors, from violent street gangsters to nonviolent grassroots brokers, to coerce and mobilize the masses. She draws on ethnographic research conducted from Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping, a unique and original event dataset, and a collection of government regulations in a study of everyday land grabs and housing demolitions in China. Ong shows how the state can use respected local leaders and violent thugs alike, inviting us to rethink the boundaries of the state and what state power looks like on the ground. 

Speaker:

• Lynette H. Ong, Professor of Political Science, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto

 Moderator:

• Victor Shih, Ho Miu Lam Chair in China and Pacific Relations, Associate Professor of Political Science, UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy