Governance function analysis of the Patriotic Health Movement in China

Background:Health system governance is critical to the operation of a country’s health system and its overall performance.This study analyzes the role of health system governance in driving health policy innovation and effective implementation.Methods:A retrospective review is applied to collect,analyze and synthesize information from publications and policy documents relevant to the implementation of a typical health policy,the Patriotic Health Movement.Results:The analysis of governance highlighted a number of features underpinning this policy.These included highest authority prioritizing health system development,specific health policies being prioritized within the national development agenda,strong political will to promote the policies drawing on the advantages of the highly hierarchal administrative system in China,and accumulating evidence from local experience to support policy making.It was also found that the formation of these governance practices and how they drove policy innovation and implementation were both closely related to the political and socio-economic contexts in China.Conclusion:Given that many low-and middle-income countries are strengthening their health systems aimed at UHC,this study demonstrates that along with drawing lessons from health policies or interventions,addressing factors in each governance domain is critical in adapting the policy design to other settings and the effective operation of policies in other settings.

Co-optation and Its Discontents： Seventh-Day Adventism in 1950s China

Most studies of Christianity in the early PRC have focused on the politicization of religious practices under the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, explaining how the Christian faith empowered people to resist the state＇s atheistic propaganda. In fact, both Communist officials and Christians invoked ideas about transcendent power and moral purpose, blurring the boundary between secular and religious concerns. The state-sanctioned patriotic religions had greatly impacted the political and theological orientations of Chinese Christians in the Maoist era. This article looks at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Shanghai, one of the first Protestant denominations to be denounced in the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. When the state infiltrated the Adventist institutions, some of the pro-government Adventist leaders worked with the officials to bring the church closer to the socialist order. Most of the Adventists, however, resisted the state and organized themselves into a diffused network of house churches. This study highlights the fluid and complex political environment that the Adventists experienced, and the ways they interacted with the Maoist state. The reorientation of theological concerns, the new strategies for evangelization, and the growth of autonomous church networks enabled the Adventists to be a fast-growing religious movement.

Covert and Overt Activism： Christianity in 1950s Coastal China

The phenomenal growth of Catholic and Protestant churches--both officially-registered Three-Self patriotic churches and unofficial house churches--in China has drawn attention to the underlying dynamics of Chinese Christianity. This article draws on archival research and ethnographic findings to investigate the interactions between the officials and Christians in the coastal regions of Shantou （Guangdong province） and Wenzhou （Zhejiang province） during the 1950s and 1960s. The Chaozhou-speaking Catholics, Baptists and Presbyterians in Shantou succeeded in transcending sectarian boundaries and helped each other to cope with political pressure. The Seventh-day Adventists in Wenzhou did likewise by organizing clandestine house gatherings with other Protestants. They held onto their faith, continued their worship activities on Saturday, and maintained a distinct, though not independent, identity under the broad spectrum of Protestantism. These local stories show that as a collective force, Chinese Christians not only employed a variety of tactics to help each other but also reinvented congregational, kinship and cross-regional networks as conduits for pursuing religious goals. Their covert and overt activism highlight the need to combine archival research and fieldwork to assess the revival of Christianity in present-day China.