IMPACTS OF THE ECONOMIC TRANSITION ON ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION IN CHINA

Abstract

Economic transition has significant implications for environmental regulation; however, the linkages between them have received little attention in the research literature or in governmental studies until very recently. The paper examines the impacts of economic transition on environmental regulation in China. It first reviews the normative and structural features of China's economic transition. It then analyzes their broad impacts on environmental regulation in China in terms of environmental regulatory instruments losing effectiveness, intervention by local governments, trans-boundary environmental problems, conflict of interests for environmental regulators, massive resistance from the regulated, and some positive impacts. It finally draws prospects for environmental regulation in China in the context of further economic transition. The paper argues that the economic transition in China has produced mixed impacts on its environmental regulation, and that the future prospects for environmental regulation under further economic transition are also mixed.