| Summary/Abstract |
China scholars have consistently described China’s private entrepreneurs
as politically co-opted by the Communist Party regime. Since
China’s economic development now overwhelmingly depends on the
performance of the private sector, the political dynamics and power
confi gurations within the current regime coalition between state and
business may have seen change over the past decade. Drawing on the
recent literature on state-business relations and fi eldwork conducted in
diff erent provinces, cities, and counties since 2012, this paper hypothesizes
that private entrepreneurs are a “strategic group” in Chinese
politics. By working through the multidimensional networks that crisscross
diff erent party-state units, administrative levels, and formal institutions
such as business associations and local parliamentary bodies all
over the country, private entrepreneurs act collectively, albeit in (as yet)
uncoordinated ways. By looking closely at the evolving governmentbusiness
nexus in China’s local state, this article sheds new light on
private entrepreneurs’ strategic action in China’s political system and
highlights that private entrepreneurs are increasingly infl uential within
the existing regime coalition.
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