Provincial Governments In China Research Articles

Internal tension or external pressure? Study on the influencing factors of the diffusion of education policies for older adults in China – Based on the analysis of China’s provincial panel data from 2016 to 2023

ABSTRACT The development of education for older adults through policy measures has become an important means for governments to actively cope with population aging. Taking the number of education policies for older adults adopted in 31 provinces of China from 2016 to 2023 as an example, this study empirically analyzes the factors influencing the diffusion of education policies from dimensions of internal tension and external pressure. The results showed that the level of economic development, natural population growth rate, older adults dependency ratio, child dependency ratio, illiterate population over 15 years old, number of local libraries inside the province and the adoption of education policies for older adults in adjacent provinces significantly affected the adoption of education policies for older adults in each province. After the introduction of regional variables, it is found that there are significant differences in the adoption of education policies for older adults by provincial governments in different regions of China. The policy responsiveness of eastern provinces is the best, followed by the central, and the western is the worst. The above results indicate that provincial governments in China are not only affected by the supply level of education services for older adults and their service demand within the province, but also affected by the adoption behavior of other provinces when making decisions, which is the result of rational thinking and competitive pressure. The above results provide China’s experience for the diffusion and implementation of education policies for older adults in a wider range.

Portuguese Macao Border Delimitation in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: Territoriality, Sovereignty and Negotiability

This article discusses the Macao boundary question, a significant diplomatic issue between China and Portugal from the 1860s to the 1920s. It analyses the various obstacles that prevented the delimitation of the Macao border requested by the Portuguese from taking place. Lack of documentary evidence to support the Portuguese’s occupation of Macao, the domestic opinion, and local commercial interests of Xiangshan County, Guangdong, constituted essential obstacles. Meantime, it discusses the link between China’s increasing awareness of the concept of sovereignty in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the boundary question, contemporary Chinese foreign relations with Portugal, Great Britain, and the United States, as well as the disagreement between the central and provincial governments in China regarding the boundary question. The article further argues that based on the occupation principle in international relations, the Portuguese in reality obtained what was negotiable, although a written agreement was not concluded when the nine meetings on the boundary issue were finished. The Chinese acquiescence led to the prolonged Portuguese occupation of Taipa and Coloane. The Macao boundary question reveals the delicate historical relationships between China and Portugal and illustrates the complex nature of international relations.

The effect of soil pollution information disclosure on housing prices

By utilizing the “Construction Land Soil Pollution Risk Control and Remediation Directory” released by various provincial governments in China as an exogenous shock, this paper explores the impact of disclosing soil pollution information on housing prices around contaminated sites. Our findings demonstrate that the release of soil pollution information led to an average reduction of 3.3% in secondhand housing prices, indicating a market premium for houses located farther from contaminated sites. Mechanism analysis reveals that the public release of pollution information motivates sellers to expedite transactions by strategically lowering listed prices, contributing to an overall decrease in housing prices. This paper provides causal identification evidence regarding the real estate market's responsiveness to soil pollution information, offering insights from China.

Standardized Construction Indicator Assessment and Practice of Digital Government for Chaos Computing Theory

Abstract In this paper, the maximum Lyapunov exponent and chaotic phase space reconstruction method of the chaotic computing model are studied, the embedding dimension is obtained by using the saturated correlation dimension method, and the fractal scale of the chaotic model is determined by the DFA method. Based on the relevant policy documents, an index system for assessing the level of government digital construction is constructed, and the weights of each index are calculated. The constructed index system is used to analyze the digital construction level and digital service quality of the Chinese government, and the evolutionary characteristics of the standardized construction of China’s digital government are analyzed based on the chaotic computing model. The results show that the total score of each provincial government in the sample reaches above 90, only one provincial government has a total score below 80, and the average score of the total score reaches 85.72, which indicates that most of the provincial governments in China have a good level of digital construction. The purpose of this study is to promote and optimize the digital construction of provincial governments and improve their digital construction level, which is of greater practical significance.

Examining the multiple impacts of renewable energy development on redefined energy security in China: A panel quantile regression approach

The increasing generation of renewable energy and its concurrent technological innovation are driving the transformations of the energy sector, but little effort has been made at the regional level to specify the heterogeneous impacts of different types of renewable energy development on multi-dimensional energy security. Therefore, this paper establishes a four-dimensional energy security assessment system based on the current energy market situation and economic context of China. Renewable energy generation and technological innovation were simultaneously used as the core proxies for renewable energy development. Then, the panel quantile regression method was used to analyze the heterogeneity of the impact of solar, hydro, and wind energy on energy security, covering 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2019. The empirical results show that renewable energy power generation generally promotes energy security, but it cannot be effectively applicable to all levels of energy security. Renewable energy technology innovation has surprisingly hindered energy security. These results can serve as a policy and practical guide, suggesting that provincial governments in China should implement energy security and renewable energy policies in line with local characteristics.

Genres of online COVID-19 information and government information culture: A comparative case study

Information culture is a cultural phenomenon manifested in the organization's values, norms and practices that influence information management and use in the organization. Few studies have explored the relationship between information culture and the application of genres of online government information. This study offers a comparative case study of two provincial governments in China. The findings showed that the genres of the online COVID-19 information disclosed by the two local governments reflect different types of information cultures. In governance-oriented culture, information is regarded as an important tool to actualize good governance and the genres most appropriate for online information dissemination would be adopted to meet citizens' information needs. This kind of information culture is likely to enhance citizens' trust in government and be beneficial for government crisis management and good governance. While, in government-oriented culture, information is regarded as a tool to actualize governmental interest. This kind of information culture poses a risk for government in achieving the goal of building trust between the public and government. The value of this study lies in filling the research gap in the relationship between genre and information culture and providing pragmatic insights for local governments to enhance information disclosure by adopting appropriate genres and cultivating governance-oriented culture.

Interest, Power, and Attitudes Toward International Communication

This study investigated the language choices of provincial governments in China by employing the concepts of interest, norm, and power within the Language Management Theory (LMT) framework. We approached this issue by examining which language options were presented on the websites of 31 provincial governments in China (Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan not included), and found that 11 offered Chinese versions only, 16 offered both Chinese and English versions, and only four offered Chinese and multiple foreign language versions. For both the governments and international visitors, subsequent analysis suggested that additional language versions facilitated the fulfillment of communicative and symbolic interests. However, this entailed a higher loss of pecuniary interest from a government-based perspective. Here, the voluntary abandonment of pecuniary interest indicated both a lower power position and a more open attitude toward international communication. In summary, the data showed that not all provincial governments in China were ready to embrace globalization in the context of cyberspace.

To join the top and the bottom: the role of provincial governments in China's top-down policy diffusion

The provincial governments in China and their impact on the policy adoption of county-level administrations remain understudied. This article contributes to the study of policy adoption by dividing the roles enacted by provincial governments into the four following types: subcontractor, pressure-giver, designer, and co-provider. It utilizes the event history analysis method to examine the effects of the four aforementioned roles on policy adoption by county-level governments on the Old Age Allowance Policy (OAAP). The results suggest that provinces playing the roles of designer, co-provider, and pressure-giver exert a significantly more positive impact on the acceptance of the OAAP by their county-level administrations than provinces performing as subcontractors. Meanwhile, the subcontractor-then-designer role exerts a negative influence on the espousal of the OAAP by county-level governments. These findings deliver a new theoretical account of the vertical approach to policy diffusion and offer substantive practical implications for social policy applications in hierarchical societies.

Institutional development and the government response to COVID-19 in China

As COVID-19 is pervasive across the globe, governments in different countries face the dilemma of restricting the transmission risk of the virus by social distancing while yet maintaining economic activity. Inadequate social distancing policies lead to more infection cases and deaths, while over stringent social distancing policies have significant economic cost implications. This study investigates the role of local government institutions in striking the balance between saving lives and economic recovery. We based our study on a sample of 28 provincial governments in China during the early outbreak of 2020 when the emergency responses of local governments were synchronous. The findings show that local governments in those provinces with lower degrees of marketization, which were accustomed to directly intervene in the social system, mandatorily quarantined many more close contacts for each confirmed case than those in the more market-oriented provinces whose social distancing policies took economic considerations into account. The ‘overdone’ (over stringent) social distancing policies in the more state-oriented provinces led to lower human mobility and economic growth. This study highlights the importance of taking economic considerations into account when adopting policies and strategies to combat the spread of COVID-19 and how different institution management cultures lead to different outcomes.

Adoption of Major Housing Adaptation Policy Innovation for Older Adults by Provincial Governments in China: The Case of Existing Multifamily Dwelling Elevator Retrofit Projects.

(1) Background: The housing environment is crucial to the health of older Chinese people and is becoming an urgent policy initiative. This study explores factors that facilitate or impede the adoption of policy innovation on major housing adaptation (HA) by Chinese provincial governments using the framework of policy innovation and diffusion theory. (2) Methods: This study constructs an event history dataset on HA policy related to elevator retrofitting in existing multifamily dwellings in China; the lack of elevators constitutes an insurmountable barrier in older adults’ daily lives in China. The hypotheses were tested by using a traditional event history analysis (EHA) model and a piecewise constant exponential (PCE) model, which is a modified EHA model. The dataset was summarized as “province-year” event history data on 30 Chinese provinces from 2008 to 2019. (3) Results: In addition to internal determinants (e.g., population aging level and financial dependency), diffusion mechanisms can significantly facilitate or impede the adoption of major HA policy innovation by provincial governments. Policy adoption by neighboring governments helps facilitate policy adoption by nonadopters, but policy adoption by subordinate city governments impedes provincial governments’ adoption of major HA policy innovation. (4) Conclusions: This study concludes that provincial governments’ adoption of major HA policy innovation should be given a higher policy priority. The central government can promote provincial governments’ adoption of major HA that primarily benefits older adults by using fiscal transfer payments and enhancing the legitimacy of such policy.

Institutional Development and the Government Response to COVID-19 in China

As COVID-19 is pervasive in the globe, governments in different countries face a dilemma between restricting the transmission risk of the virus by social distancing and maintaining economic activities. Inadequate social distancing policies lead to more infected cases and deaths, while some overdone social distancing policies bring significant economic cost. This study investigates the role of institutions in helping governments strike the balance between saving the lives and recovering the economy. We base our study on a sample of 28 provincial governments in China. The findings show that local governments in the provinces with lower degree of marketization, which is accustomed to directly intervene in the social system, mandatorily quarantine many more close contacts for each confirmed case than those in the more market-oriented provinces with social distancing policies that contain economic considerations. The overdone social distancing policies in the more state-oriented provinces also lead to significantly lower population migration intensity, which leads to the extra economic cost. This study highlights the importance of economic considerations in fighting COVID-19 and the roles of institutions in explaining the variations of government response strategies.

Policy Reinvention and Diffusion: Evidence from Chinese Provincial Governments

Since the late 1950s, more than 1,000 academic articles related to policy innovation and diffusion have been published; most focus on how a policy spreads once it has been created, yet less attention is paid to how it is changed by those who adopt it. We extend the focus of policy innovation research from policy inventors to followers by focusing on the diffusion and adoption of the “One Visit at Most” policy in China. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is used to summarize the core factors affecting the reinvention of this policy by provincial governments in China. The results verify the characteristics of political systems are important factors in the provincial government’s policy reinvention. The vertical intergovernmental relation is the necessary condition to influence the policy reinvention. The combination of the factors for horizontal intergovernmental relations, the geographical leadership mobility of governors, and the characteristics of the government’s own economic environment also affect the provincial government’s policy reinvention. This study contributes the unique characteristics of the Chinese system and important theoretical developments to the study of policy reinvention within the broader policy innovation literature.

Chinese financial statecraft in Southeast Asia: an analysis of China’s infrastructure provision in Malaysia

Since 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative has become China’s signature foreign economic policy campaign. While there have been debates on the initiative’s implementation and implications, an emerging consensus suggests that the export of capital-intensive infrastructure is a key driving factor of China’s financial statecraft. For Southeast Asian countries, such Chinese efforts are useful in plugging their domestic infrastructure gaps, not least in the remote parts of their territory. Against this backdrop, this article examines arguably two of the most prominent Chinese infrastructure projects in Malaysia – the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) and the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP). It posits three inter-related arguments. Firstly, unlike conventional analyses which commonly treat the Chinese state as a singular, unitary actor, both the central and provincial governments in China’s multi-layer state structure have played important roles and demonstrated different characteristics in Chinese infrastructure overture towards Malaysia. Secondly, one observes contrasting patterns of well-coordinated state-business relations in the ECRL project versus loose, decentralised state-business relations driven largely by Guangxi province and market forces for the MCKIP. Thirdly, the implementation of both the ECRL and the MCKIP has been heavily constrained by the political-institutional environment of Malaysia as the host country, illustrating that Chinese financial statecraft, in the form of infrastructure provision, generates considerably less impact than what popular rhetoric suggests.

Coalition Analysis in Basic Hierarchical Graph Model for Conflict Resolution with Application to Climate Change Governance Disputes

The coalition in interrelated conflicts with hierarchical structures is analyzed within the framework of basic hierarchical graph model as an extension of graph model for conflict resolution. A basic hierarchical graph model consists of two local graph models with three decision makers: one common decision maker supervising both local graph models, and two local decision makers, each of whom takes part in one local graph model. Two types of coalition, between the common and one local decision maker, and between two local decision makers are discussed. Theorems are proposed, indicating that transition from one equilibrium to another, called equilibrium jump, can only take place in the coalition consisting of common and local decision maker. The change to a more preferred equilibrium for local decision makers could only take place when they temporarily sacrifice their interests. An illustrative example of hierarchical disputes over achieving emission goals between the national and two provincial governments in China are investigated. The results suggest that agreements between the national and one provincial government can be reached. The province will achieve stricter emission goals when being subsidized by the national government. Agreements between the two provinces cannot be formed without the participation of the national government. This study can provide courses of action for decision makers under coalition in dealing with hierarchical conflicts.

How Would Economic Development Influence Carbon Productivity? A Case from Hubei in China.

Carbon productivity, defined as the gross domestic product (GDP) per unit of CO2 emissions, has been used by provincial governments in China as in indicator for effort and effect in addressing climate-change problems. The aggregate impact of economic growth on carbon productivity is complex and worthy of extensive investigation to design effective environmental and economic policies. Based on a novel combination of the smooth transition regression model and the Markov regime-switching regression model, this paper analyzes time series data on carbon productivity and economic growth from Hubei Province in China. The results show that the influence of economic growth on carbon productivity is highly nonlinear. In general, economic growth has a positive impact on improving carbon productivity. From a longitudinal perspective, this nonlinear positive impact is further divided into three stages, transiting from a high regime to a low regime and then back to a high regime. The high regime stage, in which economic growth has stronger positive influence on enhancing carbon productivity, is expected to last for considerably longer time than the low regime stage. It is more probable for a low regime stage to transit to a high regime. Once the relation of carbon productivity and economic growth enters the high regime status it becomes relatively stable there. If the government aims to achieve higher carbon productivity, it is helpful to encourage stronger economic development. However, simply enhancing carbon productivity is not enough for curbing carbon emissions, especially for fast growing economies.

Measurement and Test of Government Supply Efficiency of Public Cultural Services in China

The scientific evaluation of government expenditure performance of public cultural services is the necessary basis for the formulation of relevant policies of public cultural services and the optimization of the structure of public cultural expenditure. This paper uses the data of 31 provincial governments in China from 2001 to 2013 to conduct an econometric test, investigates the government supply efficiency of public cultural services, and then analyzes the key areas of improving current regional public cultural supply capacity. The results are shown as follows: firstly, the average efficiency losses of the supply of public cultural services at the provincial level is 23%; secondly, according to the efficiency values of the provinces, there are three types of high, medium and low regions, and factors affecting government supply efficiency in different regions are different; lastly, in general, larger government size leads to lower efficiency, higher degree of fiscal decentralization higher efficiency, and higher proportion of cultural expenses lower efficiency, while the effect of the level of economic development on government supply efficiency is very weak. Accordingly, at the same time of promoting public culture services equalization, the regions should reduce government size, optimize fiscal expenditure structure, deepen fiscal and tax reform, improve the government executive power and so on, based on their own circumstances. But more importantly, the public cultural services should be open to the majority of the public, ensuring public cultural rights and needs of the majority.

Political Connections and Industrial Pollution: Evidence Based on State Ownership and Environmental Levies in China

We investigate how state involvement in the ownership of non-listed entrepreneurial firms affects pollution fees levied by national and provincial governments in China (environmental levies). While the national government sets minimum environmental standards, provincial governments can enact requirements that exceed these minimums, and they are largely responsible for enforcing even the national standards, so environmental levies can measure concessions that provinces make to encourage development and employment. Furthermore, state ownership is a good proxy for a firm’s political connections, which can influence the relationship between the firm and the environmental authorities. We find that firms with state ownership pay lower environmental levies, which indicates that concessions are made for political or economic purposes. However, these concessions are conditional on the level of development of the province offering them, with better developed provinces providing fewer concessions.

Characterization and performance of poly-silicic-cation coagulant in treatment of recycled paper wastewater

Tertiary treatment of pulp and paper wastewater has become increasingly pressing since stricter legislations were issued by the central government and some provincial governments in China. Coagulation process after biological treatment has been regarded as a techno-economically feasible technology for the high quality effluent. In this paper, a study on preparation and characterization of poly-silicic-cation coagulants (PSiCs) with different Si/(Al + Fe) molar ratios is described. X-ray diffraction, infrared spectra, ultraviolet/visible absorption scanning, and microscopic imaging were used as measures for characterization. Coagulant performance was evaluated using it in papermaking wastewater treatment. The results showed that new complex compounds had formed in the PSiC polymers and the optimal Si/(Al + Fe) molar ratio for the coagulant polymerization was about 0.9, at which the polymerization degree was highest. The content of ionic polymerized bonds and branch-like PSiC units would decrease when the molar ratio was lower or higher than 0.9. The highest efficiency appeared when PSiC0.9 was used in the wastewater treatment, rather than PSiC0.6 and PSiC1.5. The results also showed that concentrations of turbidity, COD, color, and residual aluminum in the PSiC treated effluent were lower than that from coagulation tests using traditional coagulants.

The impact of information and communication technology on public governance and corruption in China

A large number of studies have examined the impact of information and communication technology on governance and corruption. However, few studies have explored the situation in China. While the Chinese government is fully committed to the development of ICT, it has also invested a great amount of resources into controlling the dissemination of information. Therefore, it is worth exploring whether ICT has had a positive impact on governance and corruption in China as found in other countries in previous studies. We conducted empirical tests utilizing provincial data from 2004 to 2010 and a Dynamic Panel Data Model. The results showed that ICT had a positive impact on the governance of provincial governments in China. ICT had two different effects on corruption: ICT helped corruption cases come to light and ultimately helped reduce corruption.

The efficiency of provincial governments in China from 2001 to 2010: measurement and analysis

Measurement and analysis of local government efficiency is important; however, it is also difficult. To measure government efficiency, this paper employs the relative measurement method described in the research literature. It develops and applies an index to measure and rank the government efficiency of 31 provincial governments in China (including autonomous regions and municipalities) from 2001 to 2010. This permits a comparative analysis of provincial government efficiency and of the factors that influence it, among China's eastern, central, and western regions. The findings suggest a high association between the degree of economic development and local government efficiency, and in this respect, a large disparity has been observed between central and western regions on the one hand and the eastern region on the other. It is argued that provincial governments in the central and western regions should focus on improving residents' welfare, the quality of regional economic growth, and the level of social development by constantly enhancing government efficiency, optimizing the supply of public services, controlling the size of government, and thus improving residents' disposable income. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.