Rede ning Chinese citizenship

This paper addresses shifts in governance and the re-framing of citizenship discourse in the People’s Republic of China during the 1990s. Drawing upon a Sinicized Marxist-Leninism, public intellectuals and propagandists have sought to represent citizens’ rights primarily as socio-economic beneŽ ts of China’s reform agenda delivered by the Communist Party. This materialist articulation of citizens’ rights diminishes the prospect of citizenship functioning as a mechanism for political claims against the State. However, the proclamation of rights as social beneŽ ts is in keeping with a traditional Chinese relationship between State and society whereby the former is responsible for the general welfare of the population. The citizen is thus divested of its Western political connotations and becomes a blueprint for ethical refashioning based on state goals of economic development.