Trust, Transparency and the Paradox of Regulation: Structural Dynamics in Chinese Philanthropic Attitudes

ABSTRACT This study examines the structural relationships among transparency orientation, institutional trust, and regulatory preferences toward philanthropic organizations in China. Using original survey data and structural equation modeling, we identify a transparency‐centered attitudinal pattern: Citizens who value transparency exhibit both higher trust in philanthropic organizations and stronger support for government regulation. However, conditional on transparency orientation, higher trust is associated with reduced regulatory preferences, although this negative association is comparatively small and less stable across subgroup analyses. We further demonstrate that donation experience shows substantially stronger association with institutional trust than Communist Party membership, suggesting behavioral engagement may play a larger role than political identity in structuring philanthropic attitudes. These findings challenge frameworks treating trust and regulation as substitutes, revealing instead that authoritarian contexts may generate a transparency‐centered structure of civil society attitudes in which transparency is associated with both institutional confidence and support for oversight.