This article explores how school-aged Chinese youth make meaning of the civic roles of citizens in the context of a society with a powerful one-party government. We examined how 16 focus groups (N = 64) of adolescents from urban and rural schools in Shanghai and Nantong talked about the causes and solutions of social problems facing China. Our analysis revealed a broad range of explanations of social problems, framed by contrasting narratives about the power relationship between the government and citizens. We explore how two narratives, categorized as cynical and compliant, dominated the group discussions in urban and rural schools, respectively, and how a third narrative, categorized as critical, also emerged.