Book Review: Workers and Change in China: Resistance, Repression, Responsiveness by Manfred Elfstrom

Abstract

and governments, all of which necessitate the party’s close involvement in the league’s work. Thus, any impetus for the league’s involvement in new areas of work derives from party and government priorities, limiting the league’s own initiatives. He notes that the Youth League combines two organizational identities based on its different functions. The league is a powerful promotion mechanism that acts as a channel for the party’s personnel ‘rejuvenation’ and as the platform for the creation of personal networks, political alliances, and functions. At the same time, it is a weak youth organization that lacks the autonomy and capacity necessary to carry out social work and increase its participatory character (p. 242). Clearly, the first identity is paramount. The volume also includes a very helpful discussion of the declining fortunes of the Youth League under Xi Jinping, who not only viewed the league as a bastion of factionalism – the so-called ‘league faction’ (团派) that provided a base of support for the Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao administration – but also as an obstacle to his political vision for mass organizations, which emphasizes their political character, mandating even closer management by the party. Thus, under Xi, the Youth League has downsized its membership, had its budget substantially reduced, and had its personnel redistributed away from the centre and down to the local levels, among other changes. In August 2016, the state media laid out the party’s substantial reform programme for the league, effectively rendering it politically irrelevant. As Tsimonis concludes, Xi’s reforms promote ‘an even more sterile and formal engagement of Youth League organizations with young people, with an emphasis on routine indoctrination and propaganda functions’ (p. 248), a lost opportunity indeed. Fortunately, we have this excellent book by Tsimonis to enlighten us on why Hu’s reforms were doomed from the start.