ABSTRACT
Characterized by centralized personnel management and decentralized policy implementation, the Chinese governance system generates considerable pressure on regional and local government leaders to focus on supporting profit-making enterprises, real estate development, and other pro-growth policies. This governance structure has been the institutional foundation for the rapid economic growth in post-Mao China (Xu, 2011). Yet the system also creates disincentives for local officials to address environmental and many other social issues that are less likely to be the focus of key performance targets set for local officials by higher-level governments (Chapter 1; Tang, 2012). Due to the increasing international and domestic concerns for China’s continuing environmental degradation, the Chinese central government has shown a stronger commitment to environmental protection. It has promulgated many policies and regulations and promoted the administrative rank of environmental protection agencies both at the central and local levels.
