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The Palgrave Handbook of Local Governance in Contemporary China pp 139–156Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Central-Local Relations in China

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Abstract

As China is a great power with a large population, area, and gaps in regional development, how to deal with the relationship between the central and local governments has bothered rulers for a long time and attracted the attention of scholars in the field of political science and public management. In general, the central and local relations refer to the basic ones of power and allocation of resources vertically in the state system (Jing et al. 2016: 185). China’s Constitution describes the division of authority between the central and local state organs as follows: “to follow the principle of sticking to the leadership of the central government and giving full play to the initiative and enthusiasm of local governments”. China is characterized by centralization, but from the practical point of view, China’s central and local relations appear more complex.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Policy and Management (SPPM), Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Xufeng Zhu

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  1. Xufeng Zhu
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Correspondence to Xufeng Zhu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Jianxing Yu

  2. Department of Political Science, and Center for US-China Policy Studies, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Sujian Guo

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Zhu, X. (2019). Central-Local Relations in China. In: Yu, J., Guo, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Local Governance in Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2799-5_7

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