ABSTRACT
China's rise as one of the major powers in the international arena has hitherto been attributed largely to its remarkable economic achievements. This chapter derives a key argument of the penal theory which presumes a direct connection between marketization liberalization and a trend towards increased harshness and managerialism as a lens to discover the patterns and characteristics of punishment in the Chinese context. It chapter argues that there have been very similar effects of Chinese economic reform to those observed in Western neoliberal processes – e.g. social and economic dislocations, the emergence of an underclass population and increased crime rates, among several others. The chapter examines changes in punishment over the reform period and compares them to those in the Maoist era. It focuses on two different penal strategies – the 'Strike Hard' campaigns and administrative detention – to present a general overview of penal change in Maoist and reform China.
