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Despite the Chinese central government's anti-corruption policies and restrictions on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadres' conduct, many rural cadres still hold or join lavish banquets, but in secret. Why do cadres take such risks? Why is banqueting so important for them? This ethnographic study in one rural county shows how instrumental banqueting (fanju) and associated interactions enhance exchange among rural cadres and businessmen, which can be understood as a process of relational work. This relational work exaggerates and adorns participants' personal relationships and constructs a moral basis for corruption. This style of relational work uses the Confucian notion of li as an excuse to show benevolence(ren), creating "ritualized relational work." This paper contributes to an understanding of the resilience of guanxi practices during President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the political campaigns launched by the Chinese Communist Party in the Maoist period, full mobilisation of the masses became the norm. Yet it was not just the authorities and their myriads of units and personnel who became involved. In order to achieve maximum impact, the CCP targeted and mobilised the families of the actors concerned. This paper examines the strategy and measures implemented by the CCP during the Five Antis Movement to manipulate the wives and children of businessmen and merchants and to use them as leverage in pressing businessmen and merchants to ' confess' and reveal their alleged wrongdoings in business deals with the state. Although most chose to resist and to side with their husband or father, political pressure was strong enough to force family members to become the instruments of power within the family. While the actual overall cost is impossible to evaluate, enlisting family members into political struggle left a legacy of distrust and uncertainty, which in turn dealt a serious blow to family ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]