Abstract: Trust determines the destiny of a society. Although the level of social trust in China is low, due to the accumulation of high government trust, China has continuously created economic miracles and achieved high performance in the fight against the epidemic. This study aims to explore how trust affects the government performance, especially the subjective government performance. Using the CGSS 2015 cross-sectional data of 28 provinces in China, this paper empirically examines the respective relationship between social trust, or government trust and public service satisfaction by building a cross-sectional threshold model with individual income as the threshold variable. It also introduces the cross-layer effect of regional economic development level to explore the regional differentiation of the relationship. The results show that:(1) Trust is structural, both social trust and government trust have a positive impact on public service satisfaction, but their transformation efficiency is different; (2) There are structural differences between citizens' trust in society and government:China has a low degree of social trust, but a high degree of government trust; (3) In the national sample, when individuals reach the income threshold, the transformation efficiency of social trust and government trust tends to be consistent; (4) When individuals are in different regions with different economic development levels, the efficiency, effect, and mechanisms of trust transmission are different.

Key words: social trust, government trust, public service satisfaction, government performance