Chinese traditional culture is viewed to sustain political trust in the authoritarian regime. Given that Chinese cultural traditions are complex and multi-dimensional, it is ineffective to deal with this notion by a single index. This study divides Chinese traditional values into a non-political dimension (traditional family and social values) and a political dimension (traditional political values). Then, I empirically test how different dimensions of Chinese cultural traditions shape the ordinary people’s orientations toward their political institutions and government officials. The results show that the impact of traditional values on political trust varies by its different dimensions. Traditional political values and social values are positively correlated with both institutional trust and trust in government officials. Traditional family values are positively correlated with trust in government officials but do not have an effect on institutional trust. Liberal democratic values negatively correlate with trust in government officials, but this effect on institutional trust is not significant.

Evaluating attitudes to democracy in an authoritarian political system is complex. Several surveys suggest that the majority of Chinese people feel satisfied with the level of democracy in China. In explaining this intellectual puzzle, this study addresses how different understandings of democracy influence satisfaction with the state of democracy. This study also investigates the relationships between liberal democratic values and popular conceptions of democracy, and between liberal democratic values and satisfaction with democracy. The results show that Chinese citizens who view elections and political rights as essential to democracy are dissatisfied with the current state of democracy. People who hold liberal democratic values are also dissatisfied with the current state of democracy. In other words, popular conceptions of democracy make a difference in the people’s satisfaction with the democratic level in China. With a rise in the population adhering to procedural conceptions of democracy, satisfaction with the level of democracy in China may decline in the future.

China’s rapid economic development may have dramatic political effects. Modernization theory optimistically anticipates that sustained economic growth will cause increasing public demand for political liberalization and democratization. The degree of Chinese citizens’ political satisfaction with the current state of civil liberties and political rights affects China’s future political development. Empirical findings in this article show that most Chinese citizens show increased satisfaction with their civil liberties and political rights after an improvement in their well-being. Life satisfaction in the economic sphere has a positive spill-over effect on satisfaction with civic and political rights. Satisfaction with civil liberties and political rights is positively connected to satisfaction with the level of democracy in China. The findings do not support the predicted increased demand for liberalization and democratization arising from economic growth. Life satisfaction in economic, social, and individual spheres has a positive spillover effect to the political sphere, generating inflated satisfaction with limited civil and political rights as well as a relatively low level of liberal democracy.

Values of deference to authority have long been prevalent in Japan and China. These two societies feature hierarchical social structures, harmonious orientations, and collectivism, which are regarded as cultural characteristics of East Asia. Through distinguishing traditional values in the political sphere from those in the non-political sphere, this article examines the relationship between traditional values and political deference levels in Japan and China. The empirical results show that conformity in family and school, preference for political harmony, and prioritization of national interests positively correlated with political deference in the two countries. However, prioritizing family and collective interests significantly correlated with political deference in China, while no significant effect was observed in Japan. Neither did preference for harmony in community and in the workplace have a positive effect on political deference in Japan.

In China, the public has gradually shifted their focus from GDP growth to quality-of-life issues, which imposes new challenges for the government. The food safety problem, as a salient issue, is one such example. This article analyzes how food safety problems affect ordinary Chinese people's trust in the government and their attribution of governmental responsibility using nationally representative survey data. As food safety risks are unequally distributed in China, the political impact of food safety problems varies among people of different socioeconomic statuses. The results show that food safety problems weaken the public's trust in both the central and local governments, but this negative effect is attenuated among people with a low level of education. Moreover, the Chinese public tends to attribute major responsibility to the central government rather than local governments when perceiving the severity of food safety problems, and this tendency becomes stronger for the low-income population. The results deepen the understanding of the local-central political trust patterns and the political implications of food safety problems in China.