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This article attempts to discover whether the National People's Congress (NPC), China's law-making body, is becoming more specialized and thereby losing its rubber-stamp image. The exploration of the composition of the NPC's permanent committees demonstrates that specialization is indeed a discernible trend. More and more social elites have been co-opted onto them. The empirical results further attest to the usefulness of the information efficiency theory. Unfortunately, specialization has yet to give the Chinese legislature more autonomy. Only 30% of committee members are privileged to serve more than one five-year term. The influence of the Party-state core and the lack of membership stability have put additional restraints on the NPC's autonomy. (J Contemp China/GIGA)

Using data from the fifth wave 0/ the World Values Survey, this study analyzes the origins of postmaterialism and how it might affect people s support for environmental protection on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Our empirical results show that the level of postmaterialism in China is no less than it is in Taiwan. Age and education are two essential predictors for postmaterialism at the level of individual analysis. Middle class intellectuals in China are more concerned about postmaterialist issues than their counterparts in Taiwan. In addition, we .find that the Chinese demonstrate higher levels of support for environmental protection than the Taiwanese do, whereas Chinese postmaterialists are less likely to be concerned about the environment than Taiwanese postmaterialists. Therefore, we suggest a revised version of Inglehart's hypotheses to explain support for environmental protection. The paper underlines the effect of political institutions on shaping cultural values, in contrast previous studies that give too much weight to economic development. (Issues Stud/GIGA)

Under what conditions might authoritarian states adapt public policies to social preferences? How could social actors push the window for policy change? How might state–society interactions induce policy change as the practice of authoritarian adaptation? This article utilizes a new database of case evidence and the qualitative comparative analysis method to explore the relationship between state–society interaction and policy change as the practical manifestation of authoritarian adaptation in China. The study presents three approaches to policy change: state–society interactive strategies, policy entrepreneurs and the political opportunity structure. The empirical results reveal three patterns of state–society interaction leading to policy change, while submission is not a viable option for society under state suppression. Media presence may impede policy change, and the diverse functions of social organizations should be related to interactive strategies. In addition, social actors may identify political opportunities through multiround interaction, while the role of joint administration in effecting policy change remains unclear. This study offers a novel understanding of authoritarian adaptation.

""Adopts an evolutionary framework to examine how the Chinese state relates with non-state actors across several fields of governance: community, environment, public health, economics, labor, society, and religion; identifies areas where state-society interactions have shifted over time, ranging from constructive engagement to protracted conflict, thereby providing nuanced insight into the circumstances wherein the party-state exerts its coercive power versus engaging in more flexible responses"--Provided by publisher"--