How constant stress tests on China’s village cadres are raising risks for rural stability

The stress on China’s rural cadres to meet Beijing’s targets has multiplied in the past decade, raising a serious risk to stability in the countryside, a researcher specialising in rural governance has warned.

In an article posted on social media last week that was swiftly taken down, Luo Shan, a researcher from the Rural Governance Research Centre of Wuhan University, said many rural cadres had become “disheartened” and “frustrated” in their work.

“So many rural village cadres want to quit that it is [like] a flashing red light for the grass-roots governance ecosystem, and [crossing] this red line would mean that the system is not sustainable and cannot continue,” she wrote in the article posted on social media site WeChat and several media outlets before it was taken down.

Wuhan University’s website describes Luo as a “distinguished doctorate student” who graduated in August. Attempts to contact her for comment were unsuccessful.

In the article, Luo said she based her observations on research she conducted in July in a village in central China where the community’s seven leading cadres had all indicated a “strong desire to quit” and the three who were in charge had “clearly expressed their wishes” to resign to their superiors.

Luo wrote that it was a worrying phenomenon, as the village cadres “played an important role in maintaining orderly production and stability in rural society”.