Pilot Projects In China Research Articles

Analysis of Farmers’ Willingness to Land Transfer in Collective Land Construction Rental Housing Projects

The policy of using collective land to build rental housing was first implemented in 2017 in the context of the Chinese government’s proposal of “housing for living, not speculation”. However, due to the constraints of laws and regulations, the attitudes of local governments and social capital, and the attitudes of collective economic organizations, the progress of pilot projects varies from city to city. This paper selects the Nanjing Zhetang project and analyzes the factors affecting the willingness of rural households in the collective economic organizations to which the pilot project belongs to the land transfer through the framework of Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD). Finally, it is concluded that the strength of the collective economic organization of the pilot project, the traditional concept of land acquisition of farmers, and the concern of farmers about the unfair distribution of expected benefits jointly affect the attitude of farmers towards land transfer in the market. Finally, relevant suggestions are given to provide reference for other pilot projects in China.

How does new energy demonstration city pilot policy affect carbon dioxide emissions? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

Energy transition policies are of great significance in adjusting the structure of energy supply and demand and coping with climate change. The new energy demonstration city pilot (NEDCP) policy, as an important pilot project in China's energy transition process, lacks a scientific assessment of the carbon reduction effect of the NEDCP policy and an in-depth explanation of the mechanism of the NEDCP. Based on panel data of 209 Chinese cities at the prefectural and higher levels from 2007 to 2019, this study takes the NEDCP policy as a quasi-natural experiment, using a difference-in-differences model combined with firm-level data to identify the impact of the NEDCP policy on urban carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This study analyzes the impact of heterogeneity of urban characteristics on the policy effect from multiple perspectives, and further investigates its mechanism. The conclusions are shown in the following aspects. (1) The implementation of the NEDCP policy decreases urban CO2 emissions significantly. Meanwhile, a series of robustness tests, including the instrumental variables method, propensity score matching difference-in-differences method, placebo test, exclusion of policy interference test, and machine learning method, support this conclusion. (2) The NEDCP policy achieves carbon reduction effects mainly through scale and structure effects. (3) The results of the heterogeneity test show that the NEDCP policy is more effective in cities with higher administrative levels, energy-demanding cities, cities in the southeast of Hu-line, and cities with a higher degree of nationalization. Therefore, the Chinese government should summarize the implementation experience of the NEDCP policy and expand its scope of application. The evaluation of the NEDCP policy in China has important reference value for the energy transition of other developing countries.

Assessing the carbon emission performance of digital greening synergistic transformation: evidence from the dual pilot projects in China.

Digital greening synergistic transformation (DGST) is a new engine for achieving dual carbon targets. Using panel data from 281 Chinese cities between 2003 and 2019, this study investigates the effect and transmission mechanism of the DGST on carbon emission performance. It is based on the quasi-natural experiments of the dual pilot projects "Broadband China" and "Low-carbon City",as well as the multi-period difference-in-difference method. The empirical findings are as follows: (1) DGST, represented by the dual pilot projects, effectively enhances carbon emission performance. Compared to the isolated "Broadband China" and "Low-Carbon City" pilot projects, establishing dual pilot projects generates a more pronounced carbon emission reduction effect through synergistic effects. (2) In terms of dynamic effects, the carbon emission reduction effect in dual pilot cities appears in the first year following initiation, indicating a certain temporal aspect to this effect. (3) Mechanism analysis reveals that the impact of DGST on carbon emission performance is channeled through two pathways: industrial structural adjustment and low-carbon technology innovation. (4) The positive impact of DGST on carbon emission performance exhibits heterogeneity, primarily present in cities with higher levels of financial technology, human capital, and new infrastructure development. It implies that the implementation of DGST necessitates adequate human, financial, and material support. In conclusion, this research contributes empirical evidence for further exploring policy synergies, offering support for achieving dual carbon targets through DGST.

Non-intrusive multi-label load monitoring via transfer and contrastive learning architecture

To achieve the goal of peaking carbon emissions globally and carbon neutrality, smart energy management is a promising way to boost energy conservation and estimate the residential potential for regional demand response, among which the non-intrusive load monitoring technique is highlighted due to its effectiveness on the residential side. However, the identification of multi-label appliance switching operations is still a challenge in this field, which may critically affect the total identification results due to the few-shot learning problem and the complicated overlap of features belonging to different appliances. Therefore, this paper proposed a transfer and contrastive learning architecture to identify multi-label appliances effectively. In the first stage, Gramian angular field encoding is implemented to visualize power sequences to highlight the correlation between timestamps and enhance the feature extraction efficiency. Secondly, a contrastive learning architecture is implemented to learn the general distinguishing features between samples of different labels, and density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise clustering is utilized to detect multi-label samples. Thirdly, transfer learning is utilized to enhance the multi-label identification capacity of contrastive learning structures based on the existing trained model. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified through two low-frequency non-intrusive load monitoring public datasets and real-world measurements from a pilot project in China. The results show that the proposed architecture can achieve the efficacy of deep features extraction and few-shot learning in identifying multi-label appliance switching operations.

Low‐carbon sustainable development driven by new energy vehicle pilot projects in China: Effects, mechanisms, and spatial spillovers

AbstractThe transport sector, as one of the major carbon‐emitting industries, is under great pressure to reduce carbon emissions against the backdrop of low‐carbon sustainable development. The new energy vehicle (NEV) pilot projects provide an opportunity for China to make strides towards Dual Carbon targets. Based on the panel data of 277 cities in China from 2000 to 2019, this study acquires the time‐varying difference‐in‐difference (DID) method to evaluate the impact of NEV pilot projects on urban CO2 emissions, including the mechanisms, heterogeneity, and spatial spillover effect. The conclusions are as follows. The NEV pilot projects achieve co‐benefits in reducing the total amount and intensity of urban CO2 emissions. The mechanism analysis shows that the NEV pilot projects reduce CO2 emissions by improving energy consumption structure and increasing electric busses. For pilot cities with different resource endowments and traffic pressures, the carbon reduction effects in non‐resource‐based cities and license plate‐restricted cities are more effective. Moreover, considering the geographical distance factor, the NEV pilot projects only have spatial spillover effects on the intensity of CO2 emissions in neighboring cities. These results contribute to clarifying the carbon reduction potential of NEVs and providing references for other developing countries to carry out decarbonization in the transportation industry.

Configuration optimization of energy storage and economic improvement for household photovoltaic system considering multiple scenarios

Household photovoltaic (PV) is booming in China. In 2021, household PV contributed 21.6 GW of new installed capacity, accounting for 73.8 % of the new installed capacity of distributed PV. However, due to the randomness and intermittency of PV power generation, large-scale household PV grid connection has a serious impact on the safe and stable operation of the distribution network. Based on this background, this paper considers different application scenarios of household PV, and constructs the optimization model of energy storage configuration of household PV with the annual net profit as the optimization goal. Taking a natural village in China as an example, the improved particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to solve the optimal energy storage capacity, power and typical daily energy storage output. According to the optimization results, the operation effects and economic benefit indicators of the household PV system and the household PV storage system in different scenarios are compared and analyzed. The results show that the configuration of energy storage for household PV can significantly reduce PV grid-connected power, improve the local consumption of PV power, promote the safe and stable operation of the power grid, reduce carbon emissions, and achieve appreciable economic benefits. Finally, some suggestions are put forward to further promote the development of household PV storage system. The research results can provide reference for promoting the sustainable development of household PV, ensuring the smooth implementation of distributed PV development pilot project in China, and accelerating the application of household PV storage system.

Can e-government reduce local governments' financial deficits?——Analysis based on county-level data from China

Research has shown that the centralization of financial power in unitary states is not conducive to local governments' promotion of e-government, resulting in the expansion of local fiscal deficits. The fundamental reason for this problem lies in the contradiction between the information disclosure required for effective e-government and the information concentration characteristic of unitary countries. To identify the impact of e-government on fiscal deficits in this context, we take two e-government pilot projects in China as quasi-natural experiments and conduct difference-in-differences analysis of county-level data from 1997 to 2018. Through a common trend test, a placebo test, a lagged outcome variable design and the difference-in-differences with propensity score matching method, we validate our finding that e-government can effectively reduce the fiscal deficit of local governments. This function is mainly realized through the application of media tools and expansion of the scale of local enterprises. However, the impact of e-government on fiscal deficit differs significantly between regions with different levels of economic development. The effect is more obvious in regions with a poorer economic foundation. Our findings indicate the importance of e-government construction in unitary developing countries.

Spatial and temporal changes in ecosystem service driven by ecological compensation in the Xin'an River Basin, China

Ecological compensation is an effective way to harmonize the conflict between exploitation and protection of ecosystem. Xin 'an River Basin, as the first pilot project in China to carry out horizontal ecological compensation for upstream and downstream river basins, has been continuously exploring the compensation path and mode in the past ten years. The significance of this study is to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of ecological compensation from the perspective of ecosystem service value. It is helpful to explore more effective refined implementation methods. It provides reference for further adjustment and development of ecological compensation. In this paper, we used the equivalence factor method to construct the ecosystem service equivalent factors applicable to the Xin'an River basin against the background of land use change from 2010 to 2020, evaluated the ecosystem service value(ESV) of the Xin'an River basin in 10 years, and analyzed the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics. It was found that (1) ESV showed an overall growth trend over the decade, increasing by 1.25 billion, with an increase of 2.84 %. The increase in the value of the hydrological regulation function was the most significant driver. The diminishing marginal effects are also shown on the time scale. This suggests that existing ecological conservation actions are becoming less effective in increasing ESV over time, and that there is a need for appropriate expansion of existing environmental actions, as well as more fine-grained policy implementation. (2) The trend of ESV showed obvious differences in spatial distribution. Four districts and counties in the west-central part of the study area showed increasing trends in ESV, while four districts and counties in the east-central part showed negative trends. The most significant increase was in the Huangshan District (+160,370.32 million yuan), mainly due to the significant increase in the watershed area in this region, which led to an increase in the value of the hydrological regulating function. The increase in the value of hydrological regulation function in the study area mainly came from Huangshan District. This is closely related to the water pollution control, water conservation and protection, and water ecology restoration in the Xin'an River Basin promoted by ecological compensation. (3) Ecological compensation in the Xin'an River Basin has effectively promoted the growth of ESVs in the region, especially watershed-related ecosystem services. It has played an obvious positive role in promoting the construction of ecological civilization and the coordinated ecological-social-economic development.. However, the growth of ESV is not comprehensive, and the ESV of some regions and ecosystem service types are in a declining trend, without achieving a synergistic and balanced development. We give relevant suggestions for this situation.

How has China's low-carbon city pilot policy influenced its CO2 abatement costs? Analysis from the perspective of the shadow price

Extant studies mainly focus on the emissions reduction effect of environmental regulations, ignoring their influences on the costs of reducing emissions. This study takes the low-carbon city (LCC) pilot project in China as a quasi-natural experiment and examines its impact on the marginal abatement cost (MAC) of CO2 emissions. Based on city-level data from 2003 to 2018, it first utilizes a dual model of non-linear programming to estimate the shadow price of CO2 emissions, which is applied to measure the MAC. Then, it employs the difference-in-differences (DID) approach to estimate the causal impact. The results suggest that the LCC project has increased the MAC of CO2 emissions of pilot cities by 5.27% through two opposite effects: (i) The green technology progress effect, which decreases the MAC; (ii) The emissions intensity effect, which increases the MAC. The results are robust after accounting for heterogeneous treatment effects, omitted variables, sample selection bias, potential outliers, and confounding factors. Besides, the heterogeneity analysis suggests that the LCC project has a greater impact on small and medium-sized cities and non-resource-based cities. The findings of this study provide a more thorough knowledge of the policy effects of the LCC project and demonstrate the importance of green technology progress in reducing CO2 emissions.

Study on the effect of carbon trading regulation on green innovation and heterogeneity analysis from China

China launched seven pilot areas for climate change mitigation before establishing a unified carbon emissions trading system in 2014. To explore the heterogeneous effect of carbon trading regulation on green innovation in China, we constructed evolutionary games with players of governments and enterprises. We then conducted empirical studies with the difference-in-difference model. With the data of listed Chinese A-share companies from 2008 to 2018, we found that implementing carbon trading pilot projects in China significantly increases the green innovation output of enterprises in the pilot regions. Additionally, the sensitivity to carbon trading policies varies across industries and property rights. Regarding the quality of green innovation triggered by the pilot project, firms in the pilot regions prefer high-quality green invention patent innovations over low-quality green utility model patent innovations. In addition, state-owned enterprises tend to apply for high-quality green invention patents, while firms in high-pollution industries prefer to apply for lower-quality green utility model patents. Finally, we put forward policy suggestions. First, China should accelerate the pilot carbon trading regulation and expand its scope. Second, there should be regional and industrial differences in constricting carbon trading regulations. Third, the government should avoid unreasonable regulatory intensity design.

Sponge City Practices in China: From Pilot Exploration to Systemic Demonstration

In recent years, China has been committed to strengthening environmental governance and trying to build a sustainable society in which humans and nature develop in harmony. As a new urban construction concept, sponge city uses natural and ecological methods to retain rainwater, alleviate flooding problems, reduce the damage to the water environment, and gradually restore the hydrological balance of the construction area. The paper presents a review of sponge city construction from its inception to systematic demonstration. In this paper, research gaps are discussed and future efforts are proposed. The main contents include: (1) China’s sponge city construction includes but is not limited to source control or a drainage system design. Sponge city embodies foreign experience and the wisdom of ancient Chinese philosophy. The core of sponge city construction is to combine various specific technologies to alleviate urban water problems such as flooding, water environment pollution, shortage of water resources and deterioration of water ecology; (2) this paper also introduces the sponge city pilot projects in China, and summarizes the achievements obtained and lessons learned, which are valuable for future sponge city implementation; (3) the objectives, corresponding indicators, key contents and needs of sponge city construction at various scales are different. The work at the facility level is dedicated to alleviating urban water problems through reasonable facility scale and layout, while the work at the plot level is mainly to improve the living environment through sponge city construction. The construction of urban and watershed scales is more inclined to ecological restoration and blue-green storage spaces construction. Besides, the paper also describes the due obligations in sponge city construction of various stakeholders.

Drug users\u2019 awareness of and willingness to use HIV non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis (nPEP) services in China: a mixed methods study

BackgroundDrug users are regarded as a high-risk population for HIV infection. Non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis (nPEP) is internationally regarded as an effective biomedical prevention against HIV but still a small-scale pilot project in China at present. The aim of this study was to understand drug users’ awareness of and willingness to use nPEP service in China.MethodsThis mixed methods study consisting of a qualitative study and a cross-sectional survey was conducted in two cities of China from 2018 to 2019. The in-depth interviews were audio-taped, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic framework analysis. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to examine factors associated with drug users’ awareness of and willingness to use nPEP.ResultsThere were 401 and 19 participants included in quantitative and qualitative study respectively. Among participants in quantitative study, 30.2% had heard of nPEP and 56.7% reported willingness to use nPEP in future HIV exposure. In multivariate analyses, nPEP awareness was associated with age, sex, education level, AIDS knowledge score and HIV risk perception. nPEP willingness was associated with AIDS knowledge score, HIV risk perception, alcohol use, monthly income and awareness of nPEP. The qualitative results showed the barriers to nPEP willingness included the fatigue after taking drugs, high cost and side effects of nPEP medication, long nPEP course, and fear of privacy disclosure.ConclusionDrug users had low nPEP awareness and only about half participants reported willingness to use nPEP. It is essential to promote nPEP education campaigns among drug users, especially for elders, women and those with lower education level. Simultaneously, price regulation, side effect management, psychological support and privacy protection need to be managed well when nPEP is routinized.

Improving herders’ income through alpine grassland husbandry on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Promoting sustainability of ecosystems and economic development is a dual national objective in China, as well as one of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. The Three-River Headwaters Region, where a National Park initiative has been initiated in the pastoral region of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, is one of the key pilot projects in China with sustainability targets for 2025 and 2035. This paper assesses the possibility of achieving established targets for the proportion of cultivated to available grassland. These targets consider both ecosystem protection and herders’ livelihoods. An income simulation model was first developed to estimate the percentage of cultivated grassland area necessary from the natural grasslands to achieve the target income. The model was developed using income and livestock data from the annual yearbook for 2018, then applied to estimate conditions for three counties in the eastern region. Presently the rangelands are seriously overgrazed with income just reaching above the poverty level. If livestock were decreased to a theoretical carrying capacity level, income would decrease to lower than the poverty level, even considering a livestock feeding system to achieve higher production levels. Under these circumstances, in order to reach income targets in 2025, one option centered on income production from livestock requires 5% of grasslands to be cultivated to produce forage for livestock. However, achieving income targets in 2035 will become very difficult because the needed proportion was estimated to increase to 14%. An alternative was to transport extra forage from the agriculture region of eastern Qinghai province. The local government should consider these two options to improve herders’ income along with maintaining the traditional nomadic culture and sustainable ecosystems. The approach used to develop and apply this model could be applied to predict income changes accompanying future climate scenarios and to propose policies aimed at sustainability of ecosystems and economies for grasslands worldwide.

Improved SVD-based data compression method for synchronous phasor measurement in distribution networks

The integration of phasor measurement units (PMUs) greatly improves the operation monitoring level of distribution networks. However, high sampling rates in PMUs generate huge volumes of measurement data, which creates heavy transmission and storage burdens in information and communication systems. In this paper, an improved singular value decomposition (SVD)-based data compression method for PMU measurements in distribution networks is proposed. First, a lossless phase angle conversion method is proposed, which converts the discontinuous phase angle data of PMU into continuous data sequence to enhance the compression performance. Then, a PMU data compression method is proposed based on SVD, and the compression capability is further enhanced by a lossless compression that utilizes the orthogonal property of the two sub-matrices generated by SVD. Moreover, an error control strategy is designed to dynamically optimizes the scale of transmitted data according to the accuracy requirement of different applications in distribution networks. Finally, case studies are performed using real PMU measurement data from a pilot project in China to validate the compression performance and advantages of the proposed method.

Significance of demand response in light of current pilot projects in China and devising a problem solution for future advancements

The electric power sector significantly contributes to China's economic growth. However, rapid industrialization and urbanization have led to energy shortage problems. More than 70% of customers' demand is fulfilled by fossil fuel sources that threaten the environment. The rapid increase in demand and the need for decarbonization has forced China to work on demand-side management (DSM) to fulfill the power needs of the country. DSM is receiving much importance in China over the past few years. However, it is still in the early phases of development in comparison to other developed countries. At first, this paper points out the need for demand response, which is an aspect of the DSM, for maintaining power system stability and integrating variable renewable energy resources such as wind (on-shore and off-shore) and solar (photovoltaic and concentrated solar power). Then, it assesses China's power sector reforms and changes in demand response policies over the period to promote demand response programs. It also reviews the current demand response pilot projects in China, identifies technical and policy barriers in implementing these projects and proposes recommendations to make it successful across the whole country.

What Drives the Performance of Collaboration Networks: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Local Water Governance in China.

Local water governance is challenging given the significance to public health and the difficulties to manage it in a fragmented administrative system. A collaboration network is a popular governance tool in local governance to cope with functional fragmentation problems and institutional collective action (ICA) dilemmas. Empirical works are needed to examine the outcomes of such governance networks, especially in the context of environmental governance. With fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), this article seeks to evaluate the outcomes of collaboration networks by investigating the influence of network structures on local water governance performance in China. Based on empirical analyses on a dataset of twenty local water governance networks implementing the Water Ecological Civilization Pilot Project in China, the findings suggest that a high overall bridging and bonding of social capital and a low network density are important determinants of effective collaboration networks. This study has policy implications for the design of local collaboration networks in facilitating effective environmental governance.

Eco-design pilot project in China - Monsoon offer 2 upgrade

During COP21, Schneider Electric has committed that 100% of our new products would be eco-designed to tackle climate change. Launched in 2015, this initiative ecoDesign WayTM was tested on some pilot projects. This project covers the first ecoDesign WayTM pilot in China on an overvoltage or under voltage protective device used in both residential and industrial sectors, called Monsoon.Under the name ecoDesign WayTM, a method and a process have been deployed. The 3 main ecoDesign WayTM phases are: phase 1 - Marketing & Technique handshake, Phase 2 - ecoDesign WayTM follow-up and Phase 3 - Marketing communication. During the project, EIME from Bureau Veritas CODDE and ecoDesign WayTM scorecard from EVEA consulting are two core tools for eco-design implementation. They are respectively used for life cycle assessment and eco-design performance comparison.Thanks to the approach, compared to previous range, pollution emissions and resource depletion along the whole life cycle of product have decreased (reduction of 55% for energy depletion and 85% for water depletion). Global warming potential has dramatically decreased by 98.4% and air pollution by 33%. Meanwhile, the recycling rate has been improved by 18%, and recycled PA is used. The ecoDesign WayTM scorecard is stored as referent document for any customer request. Moreover, customers can access RoHS certificate, REACh declaration, PEP and EoLI in Check a product, an online environmental data repository, available 24/7.

A Geostatistical Study in Support of CO2 Storage in Deep Saline Aquifers of the Shenhua CCS Project, Ordos Basin, China

The Shenhua Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project at the Shenbei Slope injection site in North Yulin is the first 100,000 ton-per-year scale CCS pilot project in China with an injection operation lasting nearly 3 years. In this study, we investigate various geostatistical methods and their impact on the respective geologic models on which simulation is performed to understand the phenomena observed during 3 years of Shenhua CCS operations. Although there was a brief period of wellhead pressure increase at the injection well, it unexpectedly dropped for most of the time. Another interesting observation showed that the majority of CO2 gas injection was received by the topmost sandstone Liujiagou formation instead of the basement limestone Majiagou formation, which was predicted to have much more injectivity and storage capacity. Based on the current geostatistical methods and available data, 3 steps of reservoir modeling and flow simulation are carried out and they go from having homogeneous property models to incorporating standard 2-point geostatistical methods to using object-based models. The layer-cake models generate a rather uniform plume shape and increased pressure response. Meanwhile, two-point statistical models add more complexity to the size and shape of CO2 plume, however are not capable of reproducing the pressure decline behavior. These results demonstrate homogeneous and 2-point geostatistical models are inadequate in interpreting subsurface heterogeneity, both due to their method and data limitations. Further work is being done with object-based models to produce a system of meandering rivers based on the geological concept of Shenhua injection site. This will help offset the data limitation and bring our model closer to geologic reality.

An object-based modeling and sensitivity analysis study in support of CO2 storage in deep saline aquifers at the Shenhua site, Ordos Basin

The Shenhua Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project at the Shenbei Slope injection site in North Yulin is the first 100,000 ton/year scale CCS pilot project in China with an injection operation lasting nearly 3 years. While the project turned into an operational success with 300,000 tons of CO2 being sequestered, several aspects of reservoir dynamic behavior and the role of reservoir heterogeneity are not clearly understood. For example, although there was an initial period of wellhead pressure (WHP) increase at the injection well, WHP incrementally declined for most of the time. The majority of CO2 was received by the topmost sandstone of the Liujiagou formation in the injection interval instead of the lowermost limestone of the Majiagou formation, suggesting strong reservoir heterogeneity. Knowledge of the key reservoir processes and properties that resulted in these observations would help for predicting long-term storage safety and aiding the design of a larger-scale CCS operation at the same site. In this study, we investigate various object-based models and important reservoir parameters to determine aspects of heterogeneity that have the most impact on pressure behavior at the injection well and the observed plume dynamics after injection. Simulation results suggest that the extent of CO2 plume is most sensitive to the geometry of fluvial channels, and specifically, the amount of connected sandbodies that facilitate lateral fluid migration. Along with the injection rate, sandbody permeability plays a significant role in determining pressure near the injection well and in the reservoir. Further work will incorporate the dynamics of CO2 flow down the injection wellbore to derive a more accurate representation of injection rate under the reservoir condition. As drilling and analog data also suggest that fractures may exist in the Liujiagou formation, future work will also construct geomechanical models to investigate the effect of fractures on injection and storage.

Synthesizing disparate ideas: How a Chinese model of social assistance was forged

In 1993, the Shanghai government introduced a minimum income security program, causing contagious imitative behaviors in scores of local pilot projects in China. Invigorated by such local policy experiments, the central government in 1999 set up a Minimum Living Standard Scheme covering all urban regions and, from 2007, rural areas. In the process of designing this scheme, the Chinese epistemic social policy community translated foreign ideas into the national context to facilitate the social assistance reform through policy experimentation and reinterpretation of external ideas. This article argues that Chinese actors in the field of social assistance have synthesized disparate ideas from two world regions – the United States and Western Europe – and from Chinese traditions to forge a Chinese model of social assistance. It thus complements the existing literature on diffusion, which tends to assume that countries import or adapt a ready-made policy model from another country or from an international organization.