Event

With a growing economy and rising living standards, China witnessed both increased levels of private homeownership and increased public protests during the last two decades.  How have China’s provincial and local governments responded to the challenge of resistance?  The regime’s response goes beyond simply ratcheting up the use of coercion.  Authorities also have incentivized local governments and courts to aggressively respond to homeowners’ protests (whether through making law changes or offering concessions), and to address their grievances in a more flexible and coordinated manner. Home Owners Association movements have been part of this story and show how state-society relations are mutually transformative and not necessarily lopsided in favour of the state. This talk draws on the data on all HOA-related cases between 2010 and 2014 in Shenzhen and interviews with local officials, HOA members and judges.  The talk examines the vitality of emerging property rights trends and reveals how the introduction of private property rights has altered the fabric of its state-society interplay. 

Lei Chen is Associate Professor and Associate Dean, City University of Hong Kong School of Law.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Asian Law, Center for East Asian Studies, and Center for the study of Contemporary China at the University of Pennsylvania.