Authoritarian Absorption

Authoritarian Absorption unveils the transformation of China's pandemic response system from 1978 to 2018 through its battle against HIV/AIDS. Chinese bureaucrats, facing pressure from foreign agencies-especially those of the US and UK-and grassroots social movements, developed ways to turn epidemics into opportunities for enhancing domestic control and international stature. Drawing on longitudinal-ethnographic research, Yan Long reveals how Western liberal interventions can simultaneously bolster public health institutions and reinforce authoritarian power, a development pivotal to China's subsequent handling of COVID-19 and instrumental in advancing the rights of groups like gay men.