COVID-19 and uncertain intimacy state–society relations in urban china and beyond

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought new uncertainties to state–society relations in urban China. Arguably, China’s containment of the pandemic can largely be attributed to the state’s effective, but controversial, governance of society. At the grassroots level of Chinese cities, local state shequ (‘communities’ centred on the Residents’ Committees) have played a vital role in terms of both surveillance and service provision. However, rather than establishing an intimate relationship with civil society as the state intended, the latter’s handling of the pandemic resulted in contested views on the extent to which the state should intervene in society. This article engages with the ongoing debate on state–society relations, and argues that in urban China we are now seeing the advance of the state.