【Article】Mari Nakaoka: The Presence of the Communist Party in Grassroots Governance: Looking Through Party-Mass Service Centers
In September 2026, I visited Guangzhou and was able to observe institutions such as the Comprehensive Social Governance Center (社会治安总合治理中心 hereinafter referred to as the "Comprehensive Governance Center"), the Community Residents' Committee, and Party-Mass Service Centers（党群服务中心）. In grassroots governance, the Secretary of the community Party organization serves as the director of both the Comprehensive Governance Center and the Grid-based Service Management Center. The Comprehensive Governance Center is positioned as a unified platform functioning as a one-stop service for grassroots residents. However, when actually visiting district-level and community-level Comprehensive Governance Centers, the transparent automatic doors were closed, creating an atmosphere that did not feel welcoming to general citizens. In contrast, the Party-Mass Service Centers had open doors and a welcoming atmosphere, allowing us to enter several of them, giving the impression of service bases that are more open to the public.
