Book Project: Politics of the Administrative Litigation System in China

Supported by Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants, APSA 2021-22

Without a national-level election or freedom of expression, suing the government is one of the only ways that Chinese citizens can influence their political authorities. Yet, the institution is fundamentally controlled by the regime. Under such circumstances, I ask what political roles the administrative litigation system plays, both for the authoritarian leadership and for the public.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

“Retrieving True Preference under Authoritarianism” with Xiaoxiao Shen, forthcoming, Survey Research Methods [Link]

We explain how latent profile analysis (LPA), a tool to analyze survey respondents based on their answer patterns, can provide observation-based indications of preference falsification.

“Speaking Up: Why People Dare to Sue the Government in China” 2023. Journal of Law and Society 50(3): 344-368 [Link]

Some Chinese citizens still want to file administrative lawsuits despite the low expectation of winning and the possibility of political retaliation from suing the government. I argue that these litigants want to face their administrators in person during the trials and admonish them for their wrongdoings, specifically because they do not trust the court to punish the government.

Working Papers

“When Do Autocrats Publicize Discontent? Concession and Deterrence in Chinese Media” [Link] Revise & Resubmit

Why would an autocrat publicize information about citizen resistance against the government? I argue that an autocrat signals the permissible level of public challenge against the government through selective disclosure of the consequences of such resistance.

“Political Trust and Citizen Preference for Quasi-Democratic Channels: Evidence from Chinese Courts,” with In Hyee Hwang. Under Review

“Authoritarian Courts as an Institution of Control: Political Action and Trial Result” with Eddie Yang

Link to presentation slides (prepared for PolMeth 2024)

This article tests whether citizens are punished or pacified for taking political actions under authoritarianism. We apply text-as-data and machine learning methods to the entire corpus of administrative court rulings in order to overcome the extant methodological challenges of text-based analysis, including unstructured confounders and high-order interactions among covariates. Given that China is developing an AI court, this study has a practical significance as its verdicts are likely to be made based on the existing rulings.

“Supreme Guide to Attitude: Vocal Pitch and Emotions in North Korean TV News” with Haohan Chen and Yiqiang Wang

Paper presented at Asia and Australasia PolMeth 2025

What is the purpose of the excessively emotional delivery of North Korean TV news? We argue that an authoritarian regime employs emotional agenda-setting through such propaganda. We calculate vocal pitch as measures of emotional intensity using audio-as-data approach and identify propaganda contents with structural topic modeling.

“Thou Shall Not Interfere with My Internal Affairs: China’s Foreign Policy Narrative,” with Jenna Gibson

“Judicial Transparency and Censorship: Deleted Rulings in China Judgements Online,” with Handi Li