Selective policy implementation in rural China

How do Chinese local officials distinguish between policies that must be executed and those they can safely ignore? Selective implementation is an outgrowth of the institutions that govern cadre management. As a result of one-level-down management, the end of mass campaigns, and cadre responsibility systems, local officials have urged villagers to pay their taxes, accept cremation, and practice birth control but to ignore less measurable policies that forbid excessive extraction and coercive behavior. The article also discusses efforts to address misimplementation, including "rightful resistance" by aggrieved villagers.