Resilience policies in China: an analysis of central-level policies

Abstract

ABSTRACT In response to global compound risks, resilience has been incorporated into China’s national governance discourse. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of 88 central-level policies building resilience capacity in China, to refine policy design to address complex risks more effectively. A comprehensive two-dimensional “policy tool-application field” analysis framework is developed based on policy tool theory and employs bibliometrics and content analysis methods. By extracting 210 policy analysis units corresponding to 289 coding reference points, we unveil the structural characteristics, policy themes, and distribution of policy tools on resilience building at the central level. Results show a notable upward trend in policy publication, forming a multi-agency policy-making network. We observe an imbalance in the structure of policy tools, with a strong reliance on environment-based policy tools. Policy tools are configured across all application fields. Supply-based policy tools are primarily applied for environmental and technological resilience, while demand-based tools find greater utilization in economic and organizational resilience dimensions. However, there is a neglect of social resilience. This paper recommends integrating policy tools to bolster resilience in diverse fields, and how to assess risks and their dynamic adjustments in resilience building as a significant direction in the future.