The Grip of Local States

This chapter shows how state actors managed to keep control over the earlier described emerging agrarian entrepreneurship. In particular, the analysis provides details on the formal and informal resources available to local government officials of county and township levels to increase their power over local food processing enterprises and retailers. The chapter also demonstrates that although state actors act as individuals steered by their own interests and preferences, a common framework of agricultural modernization, shaped by common goals and common tools, exists, is transmitted from the central level to local levels through various formal and informal channels, holds the state together, and enables officials to act in a coordinated manner in spite of the fragmentation of the Chinese state.