ABSTRACT
China’s technological capacity is less constrained by country-specific circumstances. The capacity for knowledge creation and acquisition relies upon improved monitoring procedures, information management and environmental auditing expertise, which are relatively easy to improve over time. Despite the complexity of the task involved, donors have had some success. The UNDP has helped to facilitate institutional and technological capacities, and the World Bank has been effective in enhancing financial efficiency. The imperfect fit between donor approaches and local conditions is a familiar story in the history of international development assistance and is, therefore, hardly surprising. Local EPBs in China are often characterized as politically weak, largely impotent in regard to enforcing widespread environmental regulations, and sometimes in collusion with the very enterprises that they are supposed to be regulating.
