Taxation and Governance in Contemporary China

Lü,Xiaobo and Changdong Zhang

in Cambridge Books from Cambridge University Press

Abstract: In contrast to the drastic shifts in China's political landscape and society since 2012, taxation may appear as a comparatively mundane topic receiving limited attention. However, the relative stability in China's taxation system underscores its delicate role in maintaining a balance in state–society relations. The Element embarks on an exploration of China's intricate taxation system in the contemporary era, illuminating its origins and the profound reverberations on state–society relations. It shows that China's reliance on indirect taxation stems from the legacies of transitioning from a planned economy to a market-driven one as well as elaborate fiscal bargaining between the central and local governments. This strategy inadvertently heightens Chinese citizens' sensitivity to direct taxation and engenders the tragedy of the commons, leading to rising government debts and collusion by local governments and businesses that results in land expropriation, labor disputes, and environmental degradation.

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:cbooks:9781009509725

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.cambridge ... p?isbn=9781009509725

Access Statistics for this book

More books in Cambridge Books from Cambridge University Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Data Services ().