Adaptive Confrontation? Strategies of Three Women’s Groups for Expanding Political Space in China

An absence of overt contention has led scholars to question the existence of social movements in China and to agree with the “state corporatism” description of state–social group relations there. This article presents the idea of “adaptive confrontation” to demonstrate that there are women’s and lesbian groups in China that go beyond the idea of state corporatism, as well as to challenge current applications of social movement theories and better understand state–social group relationships in a repressive regime.By applying different strategies, three gender groups have not only confronted a repressive state interference in their affairs that aims to dismiss them, but also have managed to expand their political space. This paper presents three pieces of evidence: the building of alliances, the empowerment of other grassroots groups to do advocacy work, and the building of a community.