The neoliberal penality thesis in China: when Western theory meets Chinese reality

The neoliberal penality thesis links recent penal shifts toward punitiveness and managerialism to market liberalisation that has swept western societies since the 1980s. While this paradigm has been largely examined in the western context, less is known about how it may be applicable to the eastern context. This article aims to understand the possible conceptual limitation of the neoliberal penality thesis for understanding modern penal practices in contemporary China (‘reform China’), where economic reform has also significantly altered the state's social landscape over the last several decades. Through an examination of the ‘Strike Hard’ campaigns and administrative detention, it is argued that punishment in reform China has not increased in its severity, as has occurred in many western states. Rather, the growing need to maintain a harmonious society has enabled China's penal practices to be more managerial in orientation, analogous to the development of actuarial justice in western states.