ABSTRACT
China’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic reflected long-standing features of Chinese law and governance. The initial troubled response was consistent with incentives created by conflicting or ambiguous allocations of authority and imposition of accountability along fragmented functional, vertical and geographic, horizontal lines – known in Chinese as tiao and kuai. Later measures to control the pandemic showed the system’s formidable capacity to mobilise vast resources and shape citizens’ behaviour, and the absence of legal constraints on regime choices. Legal reforms to address vulnerabilities revealed in the crisis are unlikely to transform basic features of the system.
