The Problem of governance in China

The paper discusses the public sphere in China by looking at the commercial area, which is a key area in the emergence of civil society. To do that, the paper highlights the situation of public sphere and civil society from the late Qing to the present. Regarding the contemporaneity, the paper analyzes the development over the past few years of chambers of commerce in Wenzhou, where associational activity, like the development of the private economy, has gone well beyond other places in China. Finally the paper reflects on the notion of institutionalization by focusing on what type and how much institutionalization is taking place in contemporary China.