In 2025, China reframed its development strategy to navigate "great changes unseen in a century." Facing domestic economy headwinds, including sluggish demand, a property downturn, and acute demographic aging, China pivoted toward "new quality productive forces," such as artificial intelligence and quantum technology. Key policy shifts included raising the statutory retirement age and enacting the Private Economy Promotion Law to restore market expectations. Internationally, despite technology blockades and trade restrictions from the US and other Western countries, China maintained strategic autonomy. It balanced managed competition with the US while strengthening ties with neighboring partners like Russia and the DPRK, and using the 80th anniversary of the victory in WWII to reinforce nationalist narratives. This year of defensive assertiveness reflected a core logic of strengthening state capacity to hedge against uncertainty, and attempting to establish a new institutional equilibrium between security and development.

In 2025, China reframed its development strategy to navigate & quot;great changes unseen in a century.& quot; Facing domestic economy headwinds, including sluggish demand, a property downturn, and acute demographic aging, China pivoted toward & quot;new quality productive forces,& quot; such as artificial intelligence and quantum technology. Key policy shifts included raising the statutory retirement age and enacting the Private Economy Promotion Law to restore market expectations. Internationally, despite technology blockades and trade restrictions from the US and other Western countries, China maintained strategic autonomy. It balanced managed competition with the US while strengthening ties with neighboring partners like Russia and the DPRK, and using the 80th anniversary of the victory in WWII to reinforce nationalist narratives. This year of defensive assertiveness reflected a core logic of strengthening state capacity to hedge against uncertainty, and attempting to establish a new institutional equilibrium between security and development.

Individuals with a strong authoritarian personality often prioritize safety and security, and thus may oppose gun control policies. In today's increasingly complex media landscape, the authoritarian personality may predispose individuals to selectively consume partisan media, which, in turn, could affect their stance on gun control. Inspired by the Orientation-Stimuli-Orientation-Response (O-S-O-R) framework we propose a mediation model connecting the authoritarian personality, exposure to partisan media, and gun control attitudes. Using data from ANES 2020 (N = 8,280), the findings confirm that the authoritarian personality can exert an indirect effect on gun control attitudes through exposure to partisan media. The results also show that the mediating effect of exposure to partisan media is particularly effective for people with low authoritarian personality, because lower authoritarian personality increases gun control attitudes primarily by encouraging more exposure to liberal-leaning media. This study contributes to the existing literature by forging new theoretical connections between political personality traits, exposure to partisan media, and specific policy preferences. These findings underscore the often-overlooked influence of inherent political personality traits on both daily political behaviors and broader political attitudes.

Studies demonstrate that political trust and media use are important predictors of political participation. In this study, we leverage Asian Barometer Survey data on China to clarify how media use to obtain political information predicts how citizens participate in politics and whether political trust mediates these relationships. This study finds that traditional and new media use have distinct relationships with electoral and non-electoral participation. In addition, trust in local government is negatively related to non-electoral. These findings may demonstrate how media use predicts different modes of participation and the influence of political trust.

Satisfaction with public services is an important index of their quality and an effective way to promote political legitimacy in China. This article empirically examines how three types of public participation contribute to citizens’ satisfaction with public services in China, with special attention to the moderating role of political trust. Using data from 6,089 respondents in a survey conducted in 2020, I find that government-led discussions and nonpolitical participation have a positive effect on public service satisfaction, whereas grass-roots election participation has no statistically significant effect. Participation efficacy, political trust, policy transparency, and unfair treatment are potential factors affecting residents’ satisfaction with public services. In these correlations, political trust has a significant moderating effect. When political trust is weak, the influence of participation on public service satisfaction is null or negative; with greater trust, the negative correlation is mitigated.

The importance of childrens' political cognition as integral to the formation of their political attitudes into adulthood has been well documented in Western contexts. Whether such an association holds in China, however, is less well-known. Building on the political psychology theory of cognitive process, this article utilises the picture association test to analyse how children form their political cognition in China. The authors report five findings. First, the proximity to (a familiarity with) the police and the most prominent political leaders in childrens' political images are the entry points for children to connect with and enter the political system. Second, despite the shift from recognition of individual authority figures to system cognition in childrens' political cognition in other countries, Chinese children's political cognition based on leadership figures remains deep-rooted and persistent. Third, childrens' political cognition is closely related to their cognitive level, as they tend to grasp basic knowledge and political principles by 13 to 14 years old. Fourth, childrens' political cognition is not only related to their school education but it also has an impact on their subjective social experience. Fifth, childrens' attitudes and evaluations of authority figures are closely related to Chinese political values that emphasise benevolence and justice, and also to Chinas' hierarchical trust in government.

The sense of gain to public service is the subjective and positive psychological experience of the objective gain of public service. It reflects resident cognition and evaluation of social governance. In the construction of “people-centered” governance system,resident participation has an important impact on the sense of gain in public services. Due to the diversity of content and methods of resident participation,it is worth in-depth study of what kind of resident participation and how residents can participate in enhancing their sense of gain. In this study,the content of public participation in a resident community was divided into government-led participation and spontaneous citizen participation.The public participation channels were then divided into top-down information delivery channels,bottom-up appeal expression channels,and interactive communication channels. By analyzing 6089survey responses about resident community participation,this paper examined the influence mechanism of the content and methods of resident community public participation on the individual’s sense of gain.The study finds that spontaneous participation had a positive effect on the sense of gain to public service,while government-led participation had a non-statistically significant effect on the sense of gain.Instantaneous,interactive communication channels had a significant,positive impact on the sense of gain to public services. Citizen participation,efficacy,and political trust play important moderating roles. This paper reveals the relationship between different types of citizen participation and sense of gain,enriches the research on public participation and its role in academic circles,expands the research perspective of individual sense of gain,and has practical knowledge for improving the social governance system based on collaboration,participation and common interests,and improving the sense of gain to public service. When improving community social governance capabilities,attention should be paid to expanding spontaneous citizen participation and enhancing the interactions and communications between the government and citizens.

作为社会发展的新生力量,大学生群体的入党积极性,既与党员队伍建设息息相关,也反映了年轻世代的政党认同.受访者"递交入党申请书"的态度与行动是其入党积极性的有效观察指标.问卷调查发现,六所不同类型高校的学生中,近八成受访者已经递交或准备递交入党申请,其入党积极性受到多面向的政党认同影响:政党价值中的理想信念认知、情感信赖,政党组织认同中日益严格的入党标准感知、正面积极的党员形象认同,均在不同程度上显著提升了大学生的入党积极性.与此不同,政党绩效认同虽有助于其政党情感生成,却未能催生其入党意愿,政党情感认同与政党参与偏好存在生成机制的心理差异.此外,家庭、学校与专业等也在一定程度上表现出对大学生入党积极性的政治社会化效应.

Political psychology emphasizes that children's political cognition has the primacy effect on the formation of their political attitudes after adulthood, but this research has been ignored by the academic circle in China. In this study, the cognitive process theory in western political psychology is applied to the Chinese context, and the picture association test is used to analyze the core problem of how children form their political cognition. The research shows that, firstly, the police who live close to children and the most prominent political leaders in children's political images are the entry point for children to connect with the political system and the connection point for children to enter the political system. Second, children's political cognition has changed from the attention to authority and individual to system cognition, but Chinese children's leader cognition is deep-rooted and persistent in their political cognition. Third, children's political cognition is closely related to their cognitive level. Children have mastered the basic knowledge and principles of the political world in grade 7 and grade 8 (ages 13-14). Fourth, children's political cognition is not only related to their school education, but also plays a more important role in their subjective social experience. Speaker Bio Hongna MIAO is Associate Professor in the Political Science Department, Nanjing University, China. She holds a Ph.D. (2010) in Political Science, from Nanjing University, China. She has been a Visiting Scholar in University of British Columbia (2018-2019), Canada; National Taiwan University (Taipei, August-November, 2014); and a Visiting Student (September 2008Seoptember 2009) in the Political Science Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Her research interests focus on political culture and political psychology in cross-national contexts. Her publications in both English and Chinese include one book (Institution Transition and Workers’ Choice: The Relations among State, Enterprises and Workers in Transition Period, Jiangsu People Press, 2015), and the co-editing of another book (E-Political Socialization, The Press and Politics: The Media and Government in the USA, Europe and China, Peter Lang, 2014). In addition, she is the author and co-author of 16 book chapters and journal articles.

对1043名中小学生进行图片测验,分析儿童政治认知的现状与特征.研究发现,日常生活中接触较多的警察、媒体和教科书中经常出现的政治领袖是儿童政治认知的初始对象;随着年龄的增长,儿童的政治认知开始从权威人物转向制度,但我国儿童的领袖意象在其政治认知中始终存在;儿童的政治认知与其认知水平有很大关联,到了七年级和八年级时,他们对政治系统的一些基本知识已有所了解,但对制度运作规则的了解不及对政治知识的了解;儿童的政治认知也受到学校教育的影响.针对儿童政治认知的现状与特征,学校的政治教育和大众宣传要采取相应措施,引导儿童逐步形成正确和正面的政治认知.

In the age of continuous media change and the coexistence of multiple forms of media, the relationship between the public's media use and political participation is an urgent area of study. This paper makes use of large national sample surveys from 2002, 2011, and 2015, summarizes the change of the public's media use by descriptive statistics analysis, and finds that while the Internet has become an important communication channel, the use of Internet for political information and political participation is still overestimated. Compared to the weak impact of different media channels for political information on political participation, the frequency of media exposure and Internet use play a significant role in political participation. Because of the negative effect of the frequency of Internet use on political participation, the democratization function of the Internet needs to be treated with caution. This paper describes media use and its roles in contemporary China, analyzes the impact of media use on political participation, and extends the cross-cultural application of the theory of political communication.

此研究通过2010年和2012年在美国实施的"美国人对华态度调查"呈现美国民众对中国经济发展的态度,并透过社会经济变量、人口变量、制度与文化好感变量以及媒体使用变量(电视、广播、报纸、互联网)分析此种态度形成的原因.数据表明,美国公众基本承认中国迅速崛起的客观事实,并认为美国对中美两国的经贸关系更为依赖.但对中美贸易关系的判断具有较强的"中国威胁"意味,即认为中美之间存在的贸易不平衡是源于中国对汇率的控制,通过操纵货币在国际市场中获利.究其原因,一是客观方面,中国经济的快速发展以及急速增长的中美贸易不平衡使美国民众产生了危机感;二是中美之间在贸易不平衡、台湾问题、人权问题、环境保护问题等方面存在着分歧;三是西方媒体对中国的负面报道往往与个人的经济状况感知相结合,强化了美国公众对中国经济威胁的认知.回归分析表明,美国受访者个人对中国政治制度和文化的好感度、媒体接触及个人社会经济状况对其中国经济发展和中国贸易政策的评价具有统计显著性.

The popular political support has been considered as the Governing Foundation of CPC, as the important guarantee for modern state building and state governance. While the acquisition of political support is not easy, CCP utilized kinds of tactics to get the political support from the above at the beginning of the reform. Meanwhile, adapting to the change of the public’s political psychology, CCP adjusted timely the political socialization strategies in order to acquire the political support from the lower class, especially the working class. This paper investigates the sources of political support for the economic reform by the analysis of the political socialization strategies during the socialism market economy reform. The core point is that the relative smooth triple transition in China not only relies on the tremendous economic growth via the strategic opening-up policy and the resulting ruling effectiveness, but also depends on the political identity and support from the workers through the role of political socialization.Keywords: political support – CCP – China – economic reform-----Bibliography: Hongna, Miao: Sources of Political Support for China’s Reformation: Political Socialization of Working Class in Transitional China, PCS, 1-2014, pp. 45-60. https://doi.org/10.3224/pcs.v5i1.19818

In the multi-actors governance era government regulation as a mode of governance and an institution arrangement becomes one of the hottest political research topics.Combination the notion of governance to the regulation reform is one of the characteristics of meta-regulation government.This paper analyzes the modes of government regulation the drivecontents and the trajectories of government regulation reforms explores the metaregulatory government for the age of governance and fatherly provides experiences for Chinese government regulation reform.

自20世纪50年代末政治社会化作为一个独立的学术研究领域在欧美发展以来,这一领域已经走过了50年的历程。本文通过对欧美政治社会化发展进程的历时性分析,试图缕析政治社会化研究的脉络,评析当前的研究主题及方法,并对其发展特点进行反思,为中国政治社会化研究提供借鉴。

政治支持是政治发展的重要变量,它的获得和维持是政治系统存续的基础。特别是对于转型社会,系统的各个层面都面临着挑战和风险,如何顺利排解对系统的负输入,获得对系统发展的支持是转型社会必须解决的问题。社会转型过程中政治支持资源的开发需要通过政治社会化培养健全的政治人格和对政治系统的情感支持,需要提升行政效能来获取特定支持,更需要加强制度建设,形成与转型社会相适应的、散布性政治支持与特定政治支持共同提高的多维网络结构。

政治参与是政治民主化进程中必须解决的问题,然而不同的参与行为却给系统输入了不同的压力或支持。改革的平稳开展依赖于公民的政治支持,这决定了我国改革在保证既有的政治支持的前提下,要进一步拓展政治支持资源,可通过改善政治社会化、提升行政效能、加强协商民主的制度建设,减少改革阻力,从而形成与改革进程相适应的、散布性政治支持与特定政治支持共同提高的多维网络结构。