Politicized Medical Dispute Resolution

How did medical dispute resolution become politicized in China? This chapter examines the changing landscape of medical dispute resolution from the 1990s to Xi’s current reign. It documents the changing strategies and attitudes the government applied and adaptative institutions in absorbing and managing social disputes in China. In the 1990s, bureaucratic concerns and the underdeveloped legal system constrained citizens’ agency in holding hospitals and doctors accountable. Since 2002, under the rule of law, the new Medical Malpractice Regulation has encouraged patients to use the law as a weapon to address their disputes. However, law mobilization has coincided with the high tide of rights protection, leading to increased dispute cases against hospitals, and even collective actions targeting public health institutions. The fragmented responses to social disputes fail to address the citizens’ grievance and yet further destabilize the regime. Today, to maintain social stability, social dispute resolution institutions have been institutionalized, adapted from legal channels to a traditional Maoist weapon—People’s Mediation Institutions. This chapter theorizes the mediation channel’s institutional constraints and politicized outcomes. It explains how the dynamic interaction between the rule of law, social power, and stability maintenance influences the mediation channel in China.