Contemporary Environmental Policy Governance in China: The Transformation of Municipal Solid Waste Management(Routledge Studies on China in Transition)

This book examines environmental governance in China during the Xi Jinping era. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, this book uses the eco-transformation of waste management as a case study to reveal how central authorities exert political pressure to enforce national policy visions, while local governments frequently resort to “minimum compliance”—a strategy that allows local authorities to cope with and sidestep centrally mandated policies while avoiding the consequences of policy failure. The book uncovers persistent structural and deliberate compromises in policy steering, explaining why recentralisation under Xi has not significantly improved the implementation of national policies that have long underperformed, much like under his predecessors. Exploring debates on state capacity, bureaucratic behaviour, and local governance in contemporary China it provides a deeper understanding of authoritarian environmental governance. Offering fresh insights into China’s policy processes, this book will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of Chinese Politics and Environmental Policy.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction 2. Environmental Governance in China 3. MSW Eco-Management: A Cycle of Policy Trials and Failures 4. Central Steering in Policy Formulation 5. Local Steering in Policy Mobilsation 6. Policy Implementation: Minimum Compliance 7. Change Amid Continuity

About the Author :
Victoria S. Zhou is a Political Science researcher who received her PhD from the University of Tübingen, Germany. Her research examines the politics and society of the Greater China Region, as well as the experiences of overseas Chinese communities.

Review :
"A timely, empirically rich, and theoretically innovative work that deepens our understanding of China's environmental policy processes in Xi Jinping Era." Lianjiang Li, Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Hong Kong "China scholars have not stopped trying to understand the country's policy process in the Xi Jinping era. This excellently researched book provides profound insight into the complex local implementation of national policy guidelines, using waste separation as a case study. It sheds light on the limited steering capacities of the central government and the ongoing challenges of efficiently implementing policies in contemporary China." Gunter Schubert, Professor of Greater China Studies at the Department of Chinese Studies, Tuebingen University, Germany