Personal Politics in the Chinese Danwei under Reform

The danwei, an enclosed, multifunctional, and self-sufficient entity, is the most basic collective unit in the Chinese political and social order. It plays both a political (statist) and an economic (societal) role. As a basic unit in the political order, the danwei functions as a mechanism with which the state controls members of the cadre corps and carries out its policies; as an economic and communal entity, it fulfills the welfare and other needs of its members. Danwei membership is quasipermanent. entailing entitlement to the goods and services provided by the unit such as housing, rationed goods, bonuses, food or transportation subsidies, even organized recreational activities. Yet, entry into and exit from the danwei is not voluntary. One of its best known powers is control of the personnel dossiers (dang'an) that accompany public employees to any work unit to which he or she is assigned. The danwei's inclusive functions thus have a relationship of mutual dependency between the organization and its membership.1 Danwei was brought to the attention of the West by the first wave of reporters to take up residence in China after the Cultural Revolution, which provided them an opportunity to experience the social structure of the unit firsthand. It has subsequently become the object of social scientific analysis.2