Hongjun Chen

Party-based authoritarian regimes have often demonstrated remarkable resilience throughout wars, revolutions, and state-building processes. Yet how they consolidate authority in newly emerging socioeconomic fields that arise from the (partial) liberalization of socioeconomic policies remains insufficiently explored. This study examines the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) penetration into new socioeconomic organizations in the non-public sector, showing how it balances political control with socioeconomic vitality. We identify three strategies—coercion, indoctrination, and incentivization—framed within a process-oriented, three-step model that highlights ongoing CCP-organization dynamics rather than one-sided penetration. Drawing on resource dependence and organizational field theories, we explain both the Party’s strategic choices and organizational responses. This process has generated institutional isomorphism in the non-public sector, where party-building is increasingly viewed as a means of securing legitimacy and enhancing performance. Our analysis contributes not only to understanding CCP adaptability but also to broader debates on how authoritarian ruling parties consolidate authority in emerging fields.

How do local officials in China initiate and sustain policy experiments within a bureaucratic system that often obstructs innovation? This article examines local policy experimentation through the lens of bureaucratic power networks, identifying three key challenges: agenda-setting challenges related to superiors, coordination challenges involving peers and implementation challenges concerning subordinates. When formal power networks fail, entrepreneurial officials develop informal interpersonal networks, positioning themselves as “uninvited advisors” to superiors, “rhetorical allies” to peers and “supportive mentors” to subordinates. Using the case of “police–business cooperation” in Shanghai, the study reveals how the committee on comprehensive management of public security mobilized property management companies to maintain social stability. This article contributes to research on policy experimentation by situating experiments within bureaucratic power dynamics and highlighting the role of informal networks in overcoming institutional barriers. It also reveals the mechanisms by which the Party assigns social control tasks to commercial entities.

Vanadium doped lanthanum bismuthate nanorods with vanadium ratio of 1%, 3%, 5% and 10 wt.% were fabricated through the hydrothermal method using sodium orthovanadate as vanadium source. Vanadium doped lanthanum bismuthate nanorod products were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction pattern and diffuse reflection spectrum. X-ray diffraction patterns show that vanadium in the vanadium doped lanthanum bismuthate nanorods exists as triclinic Bi₂₃V₄O_44.5 and monoclinic LaVO₄ phases. Scanning electron microscopy observations show that the size and micro-morphology of the vanadium doped products are closely relative to the vanadium mass ratio. The length of the vanadium doped nanorods decreases and the morphology changes from nanorods to irregular nanoparticles with increasing the vanadium mass ratio. Solid UV-vis diffuse reflectance measurement shows that the bandgap value of the doped lanthanum bismuthate nanorods is narrowed from 2.37 eV to 2.25 eV after the vanadium doping ratio is increased from 1% to 10%. The doped lanthanum bismuthate nanorods illustrate enhanced photocatalytic performance for methylene orange (MO) removal with the irradiation of sunlight. The catalytic performance for MO removal depends on the irradiation time, vanadium content and dosage of the nanorods. The doped lanthanum bismuthate nanorods with the vanadium mass ratio of 10% possess the best MO catalytic degradation performance.