The Anti-Corruption Campaign, Luxury Consumption, and Regime Trust in China: Changing Patterns of Perceived Political Risk and Their Consequences

Under China's one-party system, luxury consumption is an act that might have political consequences. The authors propose a game-theoretical model and conduct an empirical study to explain why the Chinese luxury market actually expanded rapidly at the height of Xi's anti-corruption and anti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of contemporary China Vol. 32; no. 140; pp. 243 - 263
Main Authors Kuo, Chi-Hsien, Huang, Min-Hua, Huang, Ching-I
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 04.03.2023
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Campaigns
Consumption
Corruption
Extravagance
One-party system
Political factors
Political risk
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Summary:Under China's one-party system, luxury consumption is an act that might have political consequences. The authors propose a game-theoretical model and conduct an empirical study to explain why the Chinese luxury market actually expanded rapidly at the height of Xi's anti-corruption and anti-extravagance campaign. The findings show that this outcome was an unintended consequence of changing patterns of perceived political risk in the context of the anti-corruption campaign. During the Hu-Wen period, a tougher local crackdown was a leading signal of a power struggle and was associated with growing distrust in politics, and therefore reduced luxury consumption. After Xi launched his anti-corruption campaign, a tougher local crackdown on corruption became a lagging signal of risk clearance and hence no longer suppressed luxury consumption.
ISSN:1067-0564
1469-9400
DOI:10.1080/10670564.2022.2071895