The expansion of China's administrative state during COVID, with Yale Law's Taisu Zhang

This week on Sinica, Kaiser welcomes Taisu Zhang, professor of law at Yale University, who discusses his recent work on the expansion of the administrative state down to the subdistrict and neighborhood level — changes that are far-reaching, and likely permanent. They also discuss a recent essay in Foreign Affairsi n which Taisu argued that Beijing is shifting away from "performance legitimacy" as the foundation of political rule, and more toward legality — not to be confused with the rule of law.3:29 – Nationalism as legitimacy, and its grounding in economic performance7:45 – The CCP’s unique approach to “legal legitimacy”21:28 – Evidence from the Two Meetings, or 兩會 liǎnghuì35:56 – Chinese Administrative Expansion in the Xi Jinping Era49:40 – The role of the anti-corruption campaign in expanding local government authority56:18 – Changes in local governance after COVID1:01:27 – Who were the dàbái?1:04:10 – Technology in China’s post-pandemic power structureA complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.Recommendations:Taisu: The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy by David Graeber; The Rise and Fall of Imperial China: The Social Origins of State Development by Yuhua Wang; Uncertainty in the Empire of Routine: The Administrative Revolution of the Eighteenth-Century Qing State by Maura Dykstra; The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu; and The Lower Yangzi Trilogy by Ge FeiKaiser: Kaiser: Assignment China: An Oral History of American Journalists in the People's Republic by Mike Chinoy; and the many uses of beeswaxSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.