Research & Publications

Research interests

Political sociology; state-society relations; social trust; surveillance; moral politics; national identity; contentious politics; modernization.

Current research

My attention is currently focused on the following issues: 

First, growing out of my ERC project, I study how the Chinese state is seeking to morally engineer society by shaping the behaviors, values, and beliefs of citizens towards more concern for the common good and social conservatism. I co-organized a 2025 workshop on this issue in Vienna and am currently editing a relevant volume together with Carolyn L. Hsu and Yunxiang Yan. We try to understand how state moral engineering is linked to global debates on social cohesion and values; how it is related to political legitimacy, traditional political culture, societal perceptions of crisis; and what the potential and limitations of this governance program are.

Second, also connected to my ERC grant, I investigate how privacy and surveillance are being perceived, debated, and negotiated in Chinese society. Given that China is often portrayed as the world’s foremost authoritarian surveillance state, this issue is of major real-world and theoretical importance. In single and co-authored manuscripts, I am currently looking into how citizens perceive different threats to their privacy, and how the state frames surveillance to deepen its penetration of society.

Third, I investigate how citizens in East Asia (currently Taiwan, South Korea and Mainland China) imagine their political community and identity. Together with Steven Denney, I have developed a research program where we use conjoint and list experiments in surveys to understand the content and expression of national identity in a realistic and methodologically rigorous way. We seek to drive forward the methods of studying national identity in political sociology and contribute to directing more attention to East Asia in comparative debates on political identity.

Fourth, I am interested in how the process of rapid modernization has affected the political culture, values and behaviors in Chinese-speaking societies. This interest is linked to my comparative lecture on political sociology in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan and a long-standing interest in theories of modernization. I am currently developing a research agenda that addresses unresolved puzzles in this realm and makes use of the comparative leverage these cases provides.

Publications

Editorships

2021. Guest editor (with Christian Göbel and Kevin J. O'Brien) for special section "Protest Event Analysis on China". Journal of Contemporary China.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Forthcoming. (with Jian Lu and Carolyn L. Hsu) External Rewards or Intrinsic Desire? The Motivations Behind State-Led Volunteering in China. Chinese Journal of Sociology. 

2025. (with Xue Gong and Jan Delhey) Chasing a phantom: a re-evaluation of China’s “trust crisis.” Chinese Sociological Review. 57 (3): 297-327.

2025. (with Yang Kai) Value-Driven Contention in China: Forms, Tactics and State Responses. The China Quarterly. 261 (March): 39-56.

2022. (with Lukas Holzschuh and Andrew W. MacDonald) Dreading Big Brother or Dreading Big Profit? Privacy Concerns toward the State and Companies in China. First Monday.

2022. (with Christian Göbel) Protest Event Analysis Meets Autocracy: Comparing the Coverage of Chinese Protests on Social Media, Dissident Websites and in the News. Mobilization. 27 (3): 277–295. Supplementary materials can be found here. 

2022. (with Lu Jian) Alliance Building among Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations in China: The Emergence and Evolution of the Zero Waste Alliance. Modern China. 48(1): 105–133 

2021. Defending Stability under Threat: Sensitive Periods and the Repression of Protest in Urban China. Journal of Contemporary China. 30(130): 526-549 

2020. (with Jan Delhey) Socio-Economic Modernization and the “Crisis of Trust” in China: A Multi-Level Analysis of General and Particular Trust. Social Indicators Research. 152(3): 923-949. 

2018. (with Linda Chelan Li and Yihong Jiang) The Identity Shift in Hong Kong since 1997: Measurement and Explanation. Journal of Contemporary China. 27(110): 261-276. 

2017. Discursive Accommodation: Popular Protest and Strategic Elite Communication in China. European Political Science Review. 9 (4).

2016. State Behavior and the Intensification of Intellectual Criticism in China: the Social Stability Debate. Modern China. 42 (3): 300-336.

2016. (with Fengshi Wu) In the Name of the Public: Environmental Protest and the Changing Landscape of Popular Contention in China. The China Journal. 75 (January): 61-82.

2015. From Blind Spot to Media Spotlight: Propaganda Policy, Media Activism and the Emergence of Protest Events in the Chinese Public Sphere. Asian Studies Review. 39 (1): 119-137. Supplementary materials can be found here.

2012. How Is High Trust in China Possible? Comparing the Origins of Generalized Trust in Three Chinese Societies. Political Studies. 60 (2): 434–454.

2006. Sozialkapital im chinesischen Kontext: Einige Überlegungen und empirische Ergebnisse aus Taiwan. (Social Capital in the Chinese Context: Some Reflections and Empirical Evidence from Taiwan.) (In German) China Aktuell (now Journal of Current Chinese Affairs). XXXV (4): 3-46.

Book chapters

2021. Covid-19 in Germany. Learning to Dance with the Virus. Facts and Analysis: Canvassing COVID-19 Responses.  Li, Linda Chelan. (ed.). Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press. 

2019. Environmental Public Interest Campaigns: Sketching Out a New Phenomenon in China's Contentious Politics. Handbook of Protest and Dissent in China. Teresa Wright (ed). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

2015. (with Litao Zhao) From ‘Stability Overrides Everything’ to ‘Social Governance:’ the Evolving Approach to Social Order in China. China Entering the Xi Jinping Era. Zheng Yongnian and Lance L. P. Gore (eds.). Oxon/New York: Routledge.

Policy briefs, commentary, book reviews

2022. (with Sabrina Habich-Sobiegalla) Debating Academic Autonomy in the German-Speaking Field of China Studies: An Assessment. Asien: The German Journal on Contemporary Asia.

2020. Asien-Pazifik ist das Vorbild in der Pandemiebekämpfung (Asia-Pacific is the Role Model for Pandemic Management)

2019. Review of Playing by the informal rules: by Yao Li, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Democratization.

2019. (with Chau Wang-Fung) Hong Kong’s Long Summer of Discontent: A Self-Inflicted Calamity. The Asia Dialogue. University of Nottingham. 

2018. (with Linda Chelan Li). Hong Kong in China: Trends, Explanations and Policy Options. IPP Review. Singapore.

2018. (with Linda Chelan Li) Re-examining Hong Kong Political Identities: Beyond a Zero-sum Relationship. Policy Paper. Research Centre for Sustainable Hong Kong. City University of Hong Kong.

2016. (with Fengshi Wu) China's New Species of Environmental Protest. IPP Review, Singapore.

2013. How Rebellious is Chinese Society? An Analysis of Official Figures and Survey Data. EAI Background Brief No. 853, East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore.

2013. Loosening Controls in Times of an Impatient Society: Chinese State-Society Relations During Xi Jinping’s Honeymoon Period. EAI Bulletin, 2013, Vol. 15 (1), East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore. Republished in revised form in LSE Ideas, London School of Economics and Political Science.

2013. Growing Concern for Protests in the Chinese Media. EAI Background Brief No. 814, East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore.

2013. The Chinese Leadership's Softening Response to Popular Protest. EAI Background Brief No. 813, East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore.

2012. A Crisis-Ridden Continent and a Confident Party: Europe Watches China’s 18th Party Congress. EAI Background Brief No. 774, East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore.

2012. Popular Protests in China and their Implications. Invited report for XTE China Consulting Ltd., Hong Kong.

2009. Review of China’s Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change. By Andrew C. Mertha. 2008. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press. China Perspectives. 78 (2): 114-117.

2007. Review of Functional Constituencies: a Unique Feature of the Hong Kong Legislative Council. By Loh, Christine and Civic Exchange (eds.). 2006. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. China Perspectives. 72 (2): 96-98.

2007. (with Yihong Jiang) The Politics of the Chinese Green GDP. China Aktuell (now Journal of Current Chinese Affairs). XXXVI (5): 25-39.

2007. The 2007 Chief Executive elections in Hong Kong: Democratic Warm-up or the Way towards Populist Authoritarianism? China Aktuell (now Journal of Current Chinese Affairs). XXXVI (2): 95-111.

Dissertation

2012. Speaking about the Unspeakable: the Evolution of Political Discourse on Popular Protest in Contemporary China.