“The proliferation of civic groups has been one of the most intriguing features of China’s societal transformation over the past three decades. The massive spread of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) has given rise to a broad debate among China scholars about the nature of Chinese state–NGO relations. Several authors have developed theoretical concepts that highlight and explain the multifaceted and highly
complex nature of relations between civic organizations and the party-state. Against this backdrop we develop the notion of embeddedness versus marginalization to unravel these complexities and clarify ambiguities. Drawing on in-depth case studies of nine Chinese NGOs working with children and youth, this article proposes a comprehensive conceptualization of Chinese civic groups’ political embeddedness “ (Yang, Alpermann 2014)
