{"id":2353,"date":"2026-02-09T19:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T19:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/?p=2353"},"modified":"2026-04-15T00:25:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:25:21","slug":"bureacratic-avoidance-in-chinas-local-governments-the-limits-of-central-control-with-ben-hillman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/news\/bureacratic-avoidance-in-chinas-local-governments-the-limits-of-central-control-with-ben-hillman\/","title":{"rendered":"MAR 9 &#8211; &#8216;Bureacratic Avoidance in China&#8217;s Local Governments: the Limits of Central Control&#8217; with Ben Hillman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Join us on <strong>March 9<\/strong> for a lunchtime talk with Professor Ben Hillman, Director of Australian National University\u2019s Australian Centre on China in the World and Editor of The China Journal.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/events\/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D197040311\">REGISTER HERE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>During the past decade China\u2019s leaders have asserted more centralized control over the PRC\u2019s vast bureaucracy through stricter discipline and accountability mechanisms, expanded administrative regulations, stringent reporting requirements, and elaborate performance evaluations. Local government leaders, particularly at the county and township levels often respond to the increased pressures with a variety of countermeasures, collectively known in the Chinese-language policy literature as \u2018formalism\u2019 (\u5f62\u5f0f\u4e3b\u4e49). The term \u2018formalism\u2019 refers to shirking, feigned compliance and falsification, and a long list of bureaucratic behaviours that emphasize form over substance (\u91cd\u5f62\u5f0f\u8f7b\u5b9e\u8d28), and process over outcome (\u91cd\u8fc7\u7a0b\u8f7b\u7ed3\u679c). Party leaders see formalism as a serious threat to the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s policy agenda and combating it has become a top priority. This article draws on extensive recent field research across six provinces to examine the prevalence and drivers of formalism. Findings have critical implications for our understanding of centre-local relations and policy implementation in China as well as the challenges of civil service reform in authoritarian systems.<\/p>\n<p>Registration required. Lunch will be served.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ben Hillman<\/strong>\u00a0is Director of Australian National University\u2019s Australian Centre on China in the World and Editor of\u00a0The China Journal,\u00a0and\u00a0non-resident Honorary Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute&#8217;s Center for China Analysis. He is the author or editor of eight books on China, including\u00a0<em>Patronage and Power\u00a0<\/em>(Stanford University Press, 2014),\u00a0<em>Conflict and Protest in Tibet and Xinjiang\u00a0<\/em>(with Gray Tuttle, Columbia University Press, 2016),\u00a0<em>Political and Social Control in China<\/em>\u00a0(with Chien-wen Kou, ANU Press 2024), and\u00a0<em>The Communist Party of China: Understanding the Durability of the World\u2019s Most Powerful Political Organization<\/em>\u00a0(with Fengyuan Ji, Cambridge University Press, 2026).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Join us on March 9 for a lunchtime talk with Professor Ben Hillman, Director of Australian National University\u2019s Australian Centre on China in the World and Editor of The China Journal. REGISTER HERE During the past decade China\u2019s leaders have asserted more centralized control over the PRC\u2019s vast bureaucracy through stricter discipline and accountability mechanisms,<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/news\/bureacratic-avoidance-in-chinas-local-governments-the-limits-of-central-control-with-ben-hillman\/\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":2364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china-colloquium","category-news","region-china","region-east-asia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MAR 9 - &#039;Bureacratic Avoidance in China&#039;s Local Governments: the Limits of Central Control&#039; with Ben Hillman - China Studies Program<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/news\/bureacratic-avoidance-in-chinas-local-governments-the-limits-of-central-control-with-ben-hillman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MAR 9 - &#039;Bureacratic Avoidance in China&#039;s Local Governments: the Limits of Central Control&#039; with Ben Hillman - China Studies Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Join us on March 9 for a lunchtime talk with Professor Ben Hillman, Director of Australian National University\u2019s Australian Centre on China in the World and Editor of The China Journal. REGISTER HERE During the past decade China\u2019s leaders have asserted more centralized control over the PRC\u2019s vast bureaucracy through stricter discipline and accountability mechanisms,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/news\/bureacratic-avoidance-in-chinas-local-governments-the-limits-of-central-control-with-ben-hillman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Studies Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-09T19:59:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-15T00:25:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/02\/china-studies-HILLMAN-talk.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ellen E. 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