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Focusing on the challenges brought about by the devastating COVID-19 pandemic in China and the Chinese government's increasingly stringent regulatory policies, this paper poses the following research questions: During the pandemic and in interactions with the government, why did some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) survive while others were shut down, although most of those that survived were small and medium-sized NGOs? In addressing this question, this paper delves into the strategies adopted by small and medium-sized NGOs to cope with COVID-19. Using data drawn from three years of field observations and research in six major cities in China, this paper finds that four types of small and medium-sized NGOs resorted to different strategies that followed degree of competitiveness and scope of main business. The scarcity of resources resulting to the pandemic plunged NGOs into a competitive survival posture; thus, the strategies for the four types of small and medium-sized NGOs achieved three levels of effectiveness, namely good, medium, and poor. The findings of this paper shed significant light on the diversity and complexity of the survival and development of NGOs under the authoritarian regime of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 2022, the dynamic zero-COVID control policy came to an end, marking the conclusion of a three-year pandemic that affected 1.4 billion Chinese people. The pandemic and related policies created a unique, temporary, and historic social ecosystem where walking became more crucial than ever before. The pandemic not only severely restricted people's movement in public spaces but also exposed the longstanding contradictions between human bodies, modern mobility, and urban space. Over the three years of the pandemic, walking became an aesthetic survival attempt by Chinese people to cope with their limited freedoms under the pandemic. As the pandemic stagnated and worsened over time, walking-dominant activities gradually became a widespread social phenomenon that encouraged urban residents to participate in rebuilding society across various fields such as politics, art, nature, etc. The development of walking as an artistic form during this period represents a new aesthetic strategy and political awakening while reflecting humans' need to reconnect with land, social space, and their own bodies. This paper reviews how walking art has evolved historically through three periods – before, during, and after the pandemic – aiming to highlight both the public value of walking art and challenges within China's social ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Chinese medical assistance is significantly related to supporting China on human rights matters. • Countries supporting China on Hong Kong and Xinjiang matters received over double the amount of medical equipment and vaccine donations. • China's medical equipment donations matched the recipients' pandemic situation's severity, but vaccine donations did not. • As countries became less dependent on Chinese vaccine donations, political alignment mattered less. • Some recipients of Chinese vaccines moved from a neutral stance to one of defense or condemnation. The Covid-19 pandemic exposed all economies to a shortage of medical supplies alongside economic, institutional, and social challenges, prompting the Chinese government to step up its efforts to aid countries in need. At the same time, China faced a series of condemnations of its domestic human rights situation. This paper examines Chinese medical assistance and the relationship with recipient countries' position on key China-related human rights issues as a measure of political support. We find that support on human rights issues is significantly related to the receipt of Chinese medical assistance in 2020 and of vaccines in 2021. Countries that supported China in either of the two joint statements delivered at the UN on Hong Kong and Xinjiang received 125% and 174% more medical equipment and 205% and 166% more vaccine donations respectively, than those holding a contrary stance. Vaccine trade presents an even stronger association with such measures. Findings also show that political alignment and geographical proximity were more important in the first part of 2021, while these waned when the availability of new vaccines rose in the second half of the year. The association between Covid-19 assistance and political support on human rights issues post-Covid shows mixed results. Countries receiving assistance either moved from a neutral stance into one of defense of China or voted in favor of the UNHRC decision in 2022 to investigate human rights violations in Xinjiang. This indicates that while there is an ongoing politicization of human rights issues, countries do not necessarily give in to pressures. In conclusion, these findings and further analysis support fundamental concerns that vaccine donations during the Covid-19 pandemic have been mostly driven by geopolitics and not by the severity of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]