Hi, I'm Xibin Sun, a PhD candidate in political science at Nanjing University. I have conducted fieldwork in more than ten provinces across China — including Hunan, Fujian, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, Chongqing, Gansu, and Henan — accumulating over 200 days of field research.
Local Governance
Public Opinion
Social Science Research Methods
Education
Nanjing UniversityPhD Candidate
Department of Political Science · Sep 2023 – Present
Xiamen UniversityMA
Department of Political Science · Sep 2020 – Jun 2023
Central South UniversityBA
Department of Public Administration · Sep 2016 – Jun 2020
Teaching Experience
Social Research Methods
Teaching Assistant · Nanjing University MPA Program · 2025
Principles of Political Science
Teaching Assistant · Xiamen University · 2021
Selected Works
The Internal Logic of a Public Crisis' Secondary Network Public Opinion Crisis——40 Cases Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) Journal of Public Administration
Co-authors: Siyuan Gao, Guirong Zhang, Fanying Yang. Selected as a high-download paper by Academic Essentials (Sep–Oct 2023).
Gao Siyuan, Zhang Guirong, Sun Xibin, Yang Fanying. The Internal Logic of a Public Crisis' Secondary Network Public Opinion Crisis——40 Cases Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)[J]. Journal of Public Administration, 2019, 12(4):101-123+192.
This paper examines the core influence factors and covariant logic of the public crisis' secondary network public opinion crisis. By integrating existing theory and refining variables, crawler technology was used to obtain data through two levels of rooted coding, AHP was used for data dimensionality reduction, while qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) method was used for 40 cases and typical case process tracking for a theoretical saturation test. This study found that for the outbreak of the secondary network public opinion crisis, no single factor was a sufficient condition or necessary condition; the government's public opinion handling, government public crisis response, government's own factors and public opinion discussion were the core factors, and the combined path was visible. It is a sufficient condition for the outbreak of the public network crisis; the secondary mass incident and the public crisis meta event were secondary factors for the outbreak of the secondary network public opinion crisis, from "natural disaster" to "human disaster" to "official disaster". The possibility of causing a secondary network public opinion crisis increases in turn; media influence plays a catalytic role in sensation and does not change the direction of public opinion evolution. The theoretical value of this research lies in the discovery of the coupling co-variation mechanism of internal and external factors in the network public opinion crisis. This provides a holistic explanation for the outbreak of the secondary network public opinion crisis.
Point-Based System and Rural Digital Governance: A Comparative Study of Three Villages in Shanghai and Hangzhou Journal of Intelligent Society
Co-authors: Wenmin Zuo, Xinru Hu.
Zuo Wenmin, Hu Xinru, Sun Xibin. Point-Based System and Rural Digital Governance: A Comparative Study of Three Villages in Shanghai and Hangzhou[J]. Journal of Intelligent Society, 2025, 4(3):120-136+264.
Guided by the strategies of "Rural Revitalization" and "Digital China", the Yangtze River Delta region has carried out rural governance practices of "Point-based system+Digitalization" (P+D). Based on fieldwork in three villages in Shanghai and Hangzhou, this paper explores the "P+D" governance mechanism among these three villages and provides a detailed comparison of their differences. The three villages in Shanghai and Hangzhou have made explorations in standardizing the daily governance behaviors of village cadres, enhancing the enthusiasm of villagers to participate in community public activities, and strengthening the governance authority of village cadres through moral governance. This paper also discusses the impact of "P+D" governance on intergovernmental relations and relations between state and peasants. The authors found that the "P+D" has enhanced the governance standardization of village cadres and improved the public participation of villagers, but it has also shown a certain degree of alienation: excessive governance of villagers' daily lives and "welfare oriented" tendency in rural grassroots governance. This paper has pointed out that the state implements refined governance under the overall dominance of rural society through the use of digital technology. While rural society undergoes industrialization, urbanization, marketization, and digital transformation, it is also accompanied by the historical process of "State Penetration into Rural Society", where the governance power of state directly penetrates the grassroots to take over rural society.
Research Projects
| Type |
Project |
Role |
| Jiangsu Graduate Research & Practice Innovation Program |
Information Structure and the Generative Logic of Grassroots Formalism (26CXJH0035) |
PI |
| NSSFC Major Project |
Research on Improving the Framework of United Front Work (22ZDA070) |
Subproject Member |
| NSSFC Major Project |
Research on Building a Rural Governance System Integrating Self-Governance, Rule of Law, and Virtue (18VZL002) |
Co-I |
| NSSFC Key Project |
An Empirical Study on Chinese Citizens' Political Values (16AZZ003) |
Co-I |
| NSFC General Program |
Spatial Production, Social Effects, and Governance Mechanisms of Gated Communities in Urban China (71774175) |
Co-I |
| NSSFC General Project |
Theory and Empirical Research on Contemporary Chinese Intellectuals' Political Identity (17BZZ001) |
Co-I |
| NSSFC Post-Funded Project |
Embodying the Way: Effectiveness of Grassroots Governance in Rural China (24FSHB004) |
Co-I |
| Central Institute of Socialism High-End Think Tank Research Project |
Research on the Political Identity of Non-CPC Intellectuals in China in the New Era (ZK20200224) |
Co-I |