Abstract

The People’s Republic of China has been in a transitional phase since the reforms in the economic opening-up that occurred in 1978. As a consequence, many aspects of its political, economic and social life have been changing in order to adapt to the new conditions. The basis of Chinese society and culture is the family unit, and hence all relationships are based on strict rules of behavior (based on Confucian ideology), a concept emerged known as: Guan Xi. There is a wide range of literature about these general themes and specific aspects of Guan Xi; however, just a few people have assessed its effectiveness in contemporary China. The difficulty in leading with the theme of Guan Xi is that it is a very broad-based concept. It is difficult to translate into Western languages, so it needs to be understood within its cultural background in order to catch its full meaning. As it necessarily implies certain relationships, this article focuses its purpose on analyzing Guan Xi in correlation with network governance at local levels, by tracing its evolution from the Eighties to the present day. What is Guan Xi and how does it fit into Chinese local politics? This is the question that this article intends to answer.