Matthias Stepan

Ruhr-Universität Bochum | RUB · Institute of East Asian Politics

Ever since the introduction of the national political programme of “Building a new socialist countryside” (BNSC) in the early 2000s, renewed focus has been cast on how the Chinese government manages the gap between its rural and urban areas in the new millennium. Previous research has mostly studied the social and political consequences of the BNSC...

The e-government agenda of the Chinese government takes inspiration from international organizations and advanced democracies. It includes notions such as transparency, user orientation, accountability and increasing efficiency. However, some of the initiatives in China seem to reach far beyond or even stand in conflict with the ideas the internati...

This study explores the processes and outcomes of the public policy reforms from 2002 to 2014, targeting income security among the elderly for a segment of the Chinese population that was increasingly marginalised throughout the 1990s: the rural population. The authors reconstruct the policy process from 2002 until 2014 that led to the establishmen...

Im MERICS China Monitor „Der weite Weg nach China – Herausforderungen und Potentiale des deutsch-chinesischen Schüler- und Jugendaustauschs“, analysieren MERICS-Forscher Matthias Stepan und Andrea Frenzel, Expertin für den Ausbau von China-Kompetenz an Schulen, warum die Zahl der deutschen Austauschschüler in China in den vergangenen Jahren stagnie...

Das Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) hat in der Zeit von Oktober 2017 bis Ende März 2018 ein Forschungsprojekt zum Thema „China-Kompetenz in Deutschland“ durchgeführt. Ziel des Projekts unter der Leitung von Matthias Stepan war es, einerseits ein umfassendes Bild der chinabezogenen Bildungsangebote in Deutschland zu erstellen. Zum ande...

Die wissenschaftliche Zusammenarbeit von China und Deutschland liefert in Zeiten gesellschaftlicher Transformation ein breites Potenzial an innovationsfähigen und transkulturellen Forschungsansätzen. Die Beiträge des Bandes eruieren hierzu zum einen bildungs- und sozialwissenschaftliche Fragestellungen, die die Rolle von Bildung vor dem Hintergrund...

This Chinese language report presents data and figures of the exchange of high school students between Germany and China.

“Serve the people. Innovation and IT in China’s social development agenda,” examines new social policy approaches in all these areas – from the provision of affordable urban housing to the alleviation of poverty in rural areas. As with the economic reform in the past, local experimentation plays a major role in shaping these policies. Digital solut...

Wie ist es derzeit bestellt um die „China-Kompetenz“ in Deutschland? Dieser Frage widmet sich die vorliegende Untersuchung. Sie gibt – ohne Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit zu erheben – einen Überblick über die hiesigen Bildungsangebote in Bezug auf China. Durch die Auswertung statistischer Daten und von in mehr als 100 Einzelinterviews gewonnenen Info...

Einführung in die Innenpolitik Chinas mit einem Schwerpunkt auf den Änderungen der ersten fünf Jahre XI Jinpings an der Spitze von Partei und Staat.

The CCP has always ruled supreme in China, but reform era leaders have pushed for a separation between party and state organs. This is changing under Xi Jinping. The planned constitutional amendments at this year's National People's Congress and a recent Central Committee decision suggest a reversal of this process-and a takeover of state functions...

This autumn, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will convene for its congress, which takes place once every five years in Beijing. The meeting is the highlight of China’s political calendar, the leadership has prepared it meticulously for months. The congress will see President Xi Jinping cementing his grip on power: he will be elected for a second...

Chinese central government has embraced the internet as a new channel for public service provision and has encouraged local authorities to innovate in this field. However, when the progress over the last decade is considered — as seen through the scores in annual benchmarking of local government websites — innovation appears very hard to sustain. M...

The two lists on the following pages are an extract of a database on party and state Leadings Small Groups (LSGs) and Coordinating Small Groups, covering the period from 2003-2017. In the database, we compiled information on the individual group members, their organizational affiliation, and the starting year of LSGs. We have only included those in...

In China, the legislative initiative and law-making process was traditionally dominated by State Council executive agencies. Since 2015, significant changes have taken place: The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC) has played a very active role in introducing its own draft bills and has frequently vetoed government-initiate...

China struggles to rein in the accumulation of public sector debt at the provincial and municipal level through new financing vehicles. The promotion of public-private partnerships (PPPs) will not solve the problem as long as many of the " private " partners in such infrastructure funding projects are state-owned enterprises. Image by Jan Siefke Th...

https://theasiadialogue.com/2016/11/11/open-government-in-china-bound-to-improve-within-bounds/ http://blog.merics.org/en/blog-post/2016/11/22/open-government-in-china-bound-to-improve-within-bounds/

China has made impressive strides to increase the coverage of social policy programs like health insurance and old age pension plans. Yet slower economic growth and China's demographic challenges might make it difficult to continue the success story.

https://cpianalysis.org/2016/11/11/open-government-in-china-bound-to-improve-within-bounds/

Traditionelle Modelle von politischen Systemen konzentrieren sich überwiegend auf die Klassifizierung von Regimetypen auf einem Spektrum „von der Demokratie bis zur Diktatur“ (Gandhi 2010; Teorell 2010; Smolik 2012) mit einem großen Graubereich von „hybriden“ oder „fragilen“ Systemen (Diamond 2002; Levitsky/ Way 2011; Naude et al. 2011). Aus der Kl...

Seit den 1980er Jahren verringerte die Parteiführung das Ausmaß ihrer Kontrolle über das Gesellschafts- und Privatleben der Bevölkerung und weitete die Möglichkeiten zum internationalen Austausch schrittweise aus, um wirtschaftliche Wachstumspotenziale zu fördern. Lebensformen, Konsumgewohnheiten und Wertvorstellungen pluralisierten sich. Neue Tech...

Die formale politische Institutionenordnung der VRC entspricht dem Typus der zentralisierten sozialistischen Parteidiktatur. Die politische Herrschaft stützt sich auf eine nach leninistischen Prinzipien organisierte Kaderpartei – die Kommunistische Partei Chinas (KPC) – mit umfassenden Entscheidungs- und Eingriffsbefugnissen in Politik, Verwaltung,...

From Deng Xiaoping to Hu Jintao, China’s leaders have been known for their legendary pragmatism. The Chinese Party-state displayed a remarkable eagerness to learn and proved its ability to adapt to changing conditions by relying on the initiative and creativity of millions of local cadres. This has changed dramatically under Xi Jinping. His leaders...

Increasingly concerned about rampant corruption in China’s far-flung administrative system and unable to tolerate inefficient policy implementation in a slowing economy, the CCP leadership was left with little choice but to reorganise central-local relations. In this essay, we consider the most prominent measures taken thus far and posit that these...

ince the 18th party congress in late 2012, Xi Jinping clearly dominates politics in China. Compared to his two predecessors acting as head of state and general secretary of the CPC - Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao – Xi appears to be more involved in day-to-day political decision-making: he puts new issues on the political agenda and follows their implem...

At the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress that began Saturday, one group clearly stands out — the 114 of the nearly 3,000 delegates of the National People’s Congress (NPC) that are on the Hurun list of richest Chinese.

China übt aufgrund seiner historischen Tradition als ostasiatische Hochkultur und seiner einflussreichen, phasenweise dominierenden Rolle im ostasiatischen Raum eine große Faszination aus. Das Erbe der politischen Geschichte Chinas hat in vielschichtiger Weise auf die sozialistischen Erneuerungsversuche der Ära Mao 1949–1976 und auf die Reform- und...

Main findings and conclusions • The primary objective and key driver of the reform process is the aim to strengthen the rule of the party. The CCP has succeeded in recentralising power over the last two years, increasing its efficiency in the process. However , power structures which have been closely tailored to suit Xi Jinping, who is both the pr...

Vocational education and training (VET) is the Achilles' heel of the restructuring of the Chinese economic model. With the “Made in China 2025” strategy, China wants to transform into an innovation-driven industrial nation. This can only be achieved with a highly qualified workforce. Reform of the VET system is long overdue. Only if China succeeds...

A variety of actors in China are supporting the internationalisation of education. Yet, for different reasons. Individuals are leaving the country for studies abroad as a way to distinguish themselves from their peers. The government aims at more diversity in educational offers and establishing world class educational institutions in China. For edu...

Verschiedene Akteure tragen und beflügeln die Internationalisierung der Bildung in China. Studierende und ihre Eltern erwarten sich von einem Studium im Ausland in erster Linie bessere Karrierechancen. Für die chinesische Regierung stehen die Ausweitung des Angebots und der Qualität von Bildungsprogrammen sowie die Etablierung von Bildungseinrichtu...

In the age of globalization, social and environmental challenges are increasingly perceived on a global scale. The underlying assumption is that even the joint effort of all sovereign states cannot wield the influence to effectively address questions like climate change and global inequity. Subsequently, understandings of global politics have also...

This paper analyzes the impact of international reform advocacy on national pension reforms. We analyze European Union (EU) reform advocacy in two EU member states: Greece and Hungary. Although the EU has articulated a fairly coherent template for sustainable pensions, its use of soft coordination to influence national reforms has repeatedly collid...

Chinas Regierung hat in den vergangenen fünf Jahren Fortschritte beim Ausbau des Systems der sozi-alen Sicherheit erzielt. Trotz der Ausweitung der staatlichen Sozialleistungen auf die ländliche Bevölke-rung und Individuen im städtischen, informellen Sektor ist China weiterhin weit von dem Prinzip einheit-licher, universeller Sozialleistungen entfe...

Within the European Union (EU) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) the increasing mobility of individuals has become a major policy concern of how to guarantee this group with access to public social services and guarantee their social entitlements such as public old age pensions. Since the right to welfare is defined by national citizenship o...

In the last three decades the structures and logic of providing social policies in the People’s Republic of China underwent decisive reforms. As a consequence of institutional and socio-economic transitions, such as privatization, and rural to urban labor migration, the work-unit based social security system in urban areas and the family based syst...

The relationship between the European Union and the People’s Republic of China is one that brings together two unique partners. Looking first of all into the political structures we discover major differences. On the one hand, we have a multi-level governance institution sui generis with partly shared sovereignty that is still expanding and current...

If we have a look at Europe and China, at first sight we do not observe too much the two entities have in common. First of all, they share no geographical borders -this applies equally to the EU- US relations- but second and more important we share not the same cultural roots, the language and belief are completely different. So what is the interes...