Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Based on long-term ethnographic research with the first generation of China’s post-Mao entrepreneurial “new rich,” this chapter examines the formation and influence of informal, elite networks composed of businesspeople and party-state officials. These networks emerged during China’s post-Mao period of economic reforms, and the chapter documents how they were formed through shared experiences of high-end consumption and gendered leisure activities, including banqueting, drinking, and carousing in exclusive clubs. While significant financial interests and transactions undergird these networks, the chapter argues that they cannot be reduced to straightforward exchanges of power for money. These elite networks, despite their power and influence, are highly vulnerable to state campaigns, such as Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign (2012–). State campaigns have driven shifts in the modes of elite network building and highlight the continued precarious position of China’s tycoons.</jats:p>