As the Chinese Communist Party continues to move away from socialism, it faces a growing number of challenges to the claim that it represents the sole legitimate governing body in China. In order to reaffirm itself as the most effective force for keeping the country together, the CCP has adapted to contemporary political conundrums in a variety of ways.

Rejecting pessimistic perspectives which predict an erosion of state power or naive optimism that state-society relations will evolve towards a Western-style pluralist democracy in the foreseeable future, the contributions to this...