Scheme In China Research Articles

An imperfect modernity – Guangzhou’s CBD project

ABSTRACTModernization is a fundamental driver of Chinese governmental projects, exemplified by renewed cityscapes; however, recent modernity projects often fail to achieve stated objectives. The CBD project of Guangzhou, a typical flagship modernity project, exemplifies the contained and all-encompassing urbanism of contemporary Chinese urban planning with its exclusionary social character, distinctive features and visual signifiers. Efforts at redefining place for the modernity project increasingly encounter opposition and obstacle, as in the embedded enclave of the early reform years, Liuyun Xiaoqu. These remains of an earlier vision for modern Guangzhou are now the unintended centrepiece of the whole CBD project, increasingly difficult to dislodge. This paper examines the CBD project as an exemplar of Asian modernity to enquire how the embedded enclave of Liuyun Xiaoqu developed a symbiotic relationship with the government project. The case demonstrates the great difficulty of carrying out in toto grand modernity schemes in China, due in large measure to the power of local communities to challenge their social composition and architectural vision. The greenfield CBD development in China after 2001 becomes an increasingly standardized form of enclave even as the possibility of achieving the vision becomes increasingly difficult.

Providing quantified evidence to policy makers for promoting bike-sharing in heavily air-polluted cities: A mode choice model and policy simulation for Taiyuan-China

Developing countries are facing increasing challenges to make urban mobility sustainable and to tackle the continuously growing air pollution and congestion caused by the rapid increase in car ownership. As part of a broad strategy to achieve sustainable urban mobility, bike-sharing services could contribute to car usage decrease, especially for short-distance trips. However, most of the developing countries have limited quantified evidence regarding the factors affecting bike-sharing choice and this hinders policy makers from effectively promoting bike-sharing usage. The case study city is Taiyuan, which operates one of the most in demand bike-sharing schemes in China. This research investigates the factors affecting mode choice behavior with a focus on bike-sharing, and explores the effectiveness of different policy options aiming at increasing bike-sharing ridership. Nested logit and mixed nested logit models are developed using both stated preference and revealed preference data. Policy effectiveness is studied by examining modal split changes. The results reveal the significant negative impact of air pollution on bike-sharing choice. Nevertheless, improving air quality is found to be less effective in promoting bike-sharing ridership than improving bike-sharing service itself (e.g. through access time saving, travel cost saving); although it is more effective in suppressing private car usage.

Institutional barriers to the development of a comprehensive ballast-water management scheme in China: Perspective from a multi-stream policy model

Millions of tons of ballast water are released into Chinese waters annually that could contribute a significant invasion vector in the country's marine ecosystem. While some endeavors have been made to assess and mitigate the impact, a comprehensive ballast water management scheme with focus on invasive aquatic species prevention has yet to be formulated on the state level. The policy and politics behind the ballast-water management in China are empirically investigated, focusing specifically on why the scheme failed to evolve and be reformed. Kingdon's multi-stream model was applied with an analytic lens on the problem stream, policy stream, and politics stream. The analysis was aided by public and internal documents related to ballast-water issues, and interviews with people familiar with the issue or who were stakeholders in the issue. Kingdon's model enables the identification of institutional barriers to the development of a comprehensive ballast-water management scheme with focus on invasive aquatic species prevention in China. Policy implications and recommendations are proposed for policy entrepreneurs who could initiate a change to the existing policy.

Source tagging modeling study of regional contributions to acid rain in summer over Liaoning Province, Northeastern China.

Strong acid rain was recently observed over Northeastern China, particularly in summer in Liaoning Province where alkaline dust largely neutralized acids in the past. This seems to be related to the regional transboundary pollution and poses new challenges in acid rain control scheme in China. In order to delve into the regional transport impact, and quantify its potential contributions to such an "eruption" of acid rain over Liaoning, this paper employs an online source tagging model in coupling with the Nested Air Quality Prediction Modeling System (NAQPMS). Validation of predictions shows the model capability in reproducing key meteorological and chemical features. Acid concentration over Liaoning is more pronounced in August (average of 0.087 mg/m3) with strong pollutant import from regional sources against significant depletion of basic species. Seasonal mean contributions from regional sources are assessed at both lower and upper boundary layers to elucidate the main pathways of the impact of regional sources on acid concentration over Liaoning. At the upper layer (1.2 km), regional sources contribute to acid concentration over Liaoning by 67%, mainly from Shandong (16%), Hebei (13%), Tianjin (11%) and Korean Peninsula (9%). Identified main city-receptors in Liaoning are Dandong, Dalian, Chaohu, Yingkou, Liaoyang, Jinfu, Shengyang, Panjin, Tieling, Benxi, Anshan and Fushun. At lower layer (120 m) where Liaoning local contribution is dominant (58%), regional sources account for 39% in acid concentration. However, inter-municipal acid exchanges are prominent at this layer and many cities in Liaoning are revealed as important sources of local acid production. Seasonal acid contribution average within 1.2 km-120 m attains 55%, suggesting dominance of vertical pollutant transport from regional sources towards lower boundary layer in Liaoning. As direct environmental implication, this study provides policy makers with a perspective of regulating the regional transboundary environmental impact assessment in China with application to acid rain control.

Perfluorinated substance assessment in sediments of a large-scale reservoir in Danjiangkou, China.

The occurrence of eight perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in the surface sediments from 10 sampling sites spread across the Danjiangkou Reservoir was investigated by isotope dilution ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) after solid-phase extraction (SPE). All the sediments from the 10 sites contained detectable levels of PFCs. The total concentration of the target PFCs in each sediment sample (C∑PFCs) ranged from 0.270 to 0.395ngg-1 of dry weight, and the mean value of C∑PFCs was 0.324 ± 0.045ngg-1 of dry weight for the whole reservoir. For each perfluorinated compound in one sediment, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) or perfluoro-n-butanoic acid (PFBA) consistently had a higher concentration than the other six PFCs, while perfluoro-n-octanoic acid (PFOA) was always undetectable. In terms of spatial distribution, the total and individual concentrations of PFCs in sediment from downstream sites of the Danjiangkou Reservoir were higher than those from upstream sites. Factor analysis revealed that PFCs in the sediment samples originated from electroplating and anti-fog agents in industry, food/pharmaceutical packaging and the water/oil repellent paper coating, and the deposition process. The quotient method was utilized to assess the ecological risk of PFCs in the sediments of the Danjiangkou Reservoir, which showed that the concentrations of PFCs were not considered a risk. In this study, detailed information on the concentration level and distribution of PFCs in the sediments of the Danjiangkou Reservoir, which is the source of water for the Middle Route Project of the South-to-North Water Transfer Scheme in China, was reported and analyzed for the first time. These results can provide valuable information for water resource management and pollution control in the Danjiangkou Reservoir.

Dissatisfaction with current integration reforms of health insurance schemes in China: are they a success and what matters?

Integration reforms have been piloted as key policies to address the fragmented health insurance system in China. They are also regarded as a better choice for realizing a Universal Basic Medical Insurance System (UBMIS). This study has attempted to explore the determinants that may affect respondents' dissatisfaction with the reforms. The aim is to provide evidence for more effective policy adjustment during the next round of nationwide integration reforms in China. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in Ningbo, Chongqing and Heilongjiang from 2014 to 2015. A stratified cluster sampling method was adopted. A total of 1644 respondents, working in units related to health insurance, were selected. A multivariate logistic regression model was employed to identify any association between dissatisfaction and the features of the ongoing integration reforms of health insurance schemes. Overall, about 47.6% of the respondents reported dissatisfaction with the ongoing integration reforms. This high level of dissatisfaction was found to be associated with ineffective outcomes of the integration reforms in achieving management system improvement [odds ratio (OR) = 1.846], inequity reduction (OR = 1.464) and actual coverage expansion (OR = 1.350), as perceived by the respondents. Those who were satisfied with the previously separated health insurance schemes (OR = 0.643), and those who preferred other policy options for achieving a UBMIS (OR = 1.471) were more likely to report dissatisfaction with the current reforms. Higher expectations of the risk-pooling level (with ORs ranging from 1.361 to 1.661) also significantly contributed to dissatisfaction. Health insurance managers in China have conflicting opinions about the performance of piloted integration reforms. Many believe that these reforms have failed significantly to improve the management systems, narrow inequity and expand actual benefit coverage. Various strategies should be undertaken in order to address these issues, such as clarifying the administrative institution behind the merged schemes at the central level, unifying the insurance information network, developing consistent policies and bridging the differences in benefits among schemes and regions.

EMS communication routings’ optimisation to enhance power system security considering cyber‐physical interdependence

Energy management system (EMS) is one of the most essential categories of the advanced applications in current cyber-physical power systems. However, because of the tight coupling relationship between a power network and EMS's communication network, a physical break-line fault may be accompanied by a communication line outage, which may result in regional unobservability and uncontrollability. To maximally avoid and eliminate such operation risks, referring to current EMS's `active + standby' communication configuration scheme in China, the authors propose a dynamic routing optimisation mechanism for its standby communication routings, assigning the most reliable communication lines to the most important information. Such optimisation considers two factors: information's significance and the reliability of communication lines. By introducing cyber-physical sensitivity index and path-branch incidence matrix, both factors can be expressed numerically. In the case study, the authors optimise the standby communication routings for a power flow corrective control application under different scenarios. The results verify the effectiveness and superiority of their approach.

For CO<SUB>2</SUB> Emission Trading in China, Can the Market Become a National One, Four Years after Creating Seven Local Markets?

In this paper, we assess the existing seven local pilot carbon emission trading schemes in China and analyse the factors determining whether China’s carbon market is successful in terms of handling substantial amounts of CO2 emissions rights, regulating the market and trading them at a reasonable price. The emission trading system is developing slowly in most of the participating provinces and cities. Prices tend to decline, while volumes trading slowly increase. The volatility is partially the result of regulation (the rights need to be renewed before a certain date) and partially due to government interventions in the market. Based on the assessment, recommendations are provided for China implementing a national carbon market, based on the experiences and lessons learnt from the seven local carbon emission trading schemes. Conditions for China to roll out the system and later improve the national emission trading scheme to replace the existing local emission trading schemes are formulated.

Emission Trading Schemes in China and the European Union, Achievements and Challenges

A comparison of the European Union (EU) and China’s emission trading schemes (ETS) is made and we analyze a field survey concerning the pilot ETS in China. The comparison shows that EU’s carbon market is relative mature, given that EU has adopted more flexible and market based measures for its ETS. In China there are more governmental interventions to make the ETS work, but there is lack of a legal foundation and market measures for China’s ETS. The survey yielded information on the attitudes of the participants towards ETS and the linkages between carbon price and the actions by ETS participants to diminish carbon emissions. The survey results show that most participants are willing to participate in ETS and that the ETS does have positive impact on the reduction of CO2 emission. However China is not yet well prepared to move from seven small pilot ETS to a nationwide ETS, since relevant laws and regulations are not well formulated. This also explains why there are much governmental interventions for the 7 pilot ETS in China. The survey result shows that the existing carbon price in China is too low to mobilise industrial investment in abatement technology.

Thirty Years of the Yellow River Water Allocation Scheme and future Prospect

Yellow River is an important source of water for northwest and north China, and an important strategic guarantee for the sustainable economic and social development of the Yellow River basin and its related regions. The Yellow River water allocation scheme (Scheme 1987 in short) was approved in 1987 by the State Council, which was the first river water allocation scheme in China. It allocates a total volume of 58 billion m3 of water to the 11 provinces along the river and its ecosystem. However, with the deepening impact of climate change and human activities, the Yellow River water resource and its development situations have some changes and the water resource of the drainage basin faces new situations, so it is urgent to carry out the optimization and adjustment study of Scheme 1987 under the new situation. The background and promulgation process of Scheme 1987 was reviewed comprehensively, and its implementation effect for 30 years was analyzed from two periods before and after unified dispatching. The new situation of the development of the Yellow River basin in the future was analyzed, and the work to be carried out to optimize and adjust the Scheme 1987 was prospected.

Assessing the Implementation of Local Emission Trading Schemes in China: Econometric Analysis of Market Data

Assessing the Implementation of Local Emission Trading Schemes in China: Econometric Analysis of Market Data

Varieties of agri-environmental schemes in China: A quantitative assessment

Agri-environmental schemes have become an effective policy measure to prompt farmers to protect rural farmland and landscapes. In recent years, 17 provincial governments including Sichuan, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Guangxi and Guangdong have shown increasing interest in promoting local experimentation with agri-environmental schemes. Based on two waves of farmer survey data in Eastern, Middle and Western China conducted in 2012 and 2015, this paper conducts a comparative study of three agricultural environmental policy models: the farmland protection fund model in Chengdu city (the Chengdu model), the farmland eco-compensation model in Suzhou city (the Suzhou model), and the conventional farmland protection model in Wuhan (the Wuhan model). Our quantitative analyses show that: agri-environmental schemes in China have significantly enhanced farmer enthusiasm toward farmland protection and lifted their policy satisfaction. Yet, the improvement in farmer knowledge of farmland ecological functions is limited; different agri-environmental models have diverse policy effects. Overall, the Chengdu model characterized by a combination of pension insurance and agricultural insurance benefits works better than the Suzhou model. Farmer participation in rural farmland and landscape protection is affected by multiple factors, among which education is the most significant.

Adaptive policy innovations and the construction of emission trading schemes in China: Taking stock and looking forward

Harnessing market instruments of climate governance, such as emission trading schemes (ETS) into an authoritarian and highly fragmented governance system like China can be challenging. It requires tremendous efforts from local states for policy experiments and innovations. This paper examines these local adaptive measures to develop pilot ETS around China. The key finding is that these local policy innovations have played an important role to kick off carbon trading activities effectively, by addressing a number of challenges such as highly imbalanced economic and political contexts, very limited emissions data and technological capacity, and low participants’ awareness of ETS. The implications of such policy innovations to the construction of a nationwide ETS system are also discussed. Some of local policy innovations can be legitimised and adopted into the design of national carbon market, while others are more likely appreciated only at initial stage of market development at local level.

The Price of Informality: How Informal Finance Schemes Defaulted in China, 1989–2015

The default of a large number of informal finance schemes in China has caused enormous financial losses, and therefore has potential social and political significance. Analysing 354 defaulted schemes from 1989 to 2015, this study defines how they differ from other types of informal finance. It also produces an ideal-type representation of the default process and concludes that the default results from greed, increasing financial pressure at the individual level and private enterprises’ restricted access to state bank loans at the institutional level. China’s financial system should be more flexible in order to prevent further financial losses through informal financial relations.

Business perspective to the national greenhouse gases emissions trading scheme: A survey of cement companies in China

Applying data gathered from 105 cement companies, this paper gives an analysis of how business views the upcoming national greenhouse gases emissions trading scheme in China. Despite a good overall understanding, the surveyed companies have not been able to prepare properly for the implementation of this policy. They still need training to enhance their related capacity. Probably due to strict competition, it is difficult for cement companies to pass the policy cost on to their clients. The sampled companies intend to make self-mitigation efforts for compliance. It is highly likely that cement companies would mitigate emissions themselves if the carbon price is higher than 108% of the self-abatement cost. The surveyed cement companies anticipate an increase in the carbon price in China, from about 35 Yuan/t-CO2 in 2020, to 60 Yuan/t-CO2 in 2025 and 90 Yuan/t-CO2 by 2030. The analysis provides reference for the smooth introduction and effective implementation of national carbon market in China from the business viewpoint.

How do Payments for Environmental Services Affect Land Tenure? Theory and Evidence From China

Recent academic endeavours have questioned whether the rapidly unfolding Payments for Environmental Services (PES) may have profound influence on land tenure which would in turn impact the conservation efficacy of PES. This paper developed a game-theory model in the context of rural China, which describes the endogenous formation of land rights as a bargaining process between ordinary villagers and village leaders. This model gave rise to theoretical predictions pertaining to the implications of two PES schemes in China for land tenure, namely the Sloping Land Conversion Programme (SLCP) and the Ecological Public-Benefit Forest Compensation Programme (EPBFCP). The theoretical predictions were tested using primary data collected through large-scale field surveys. These data were analysed using the Propensity Score Matching method and panel data models. Both the theoretical analysis and the empirical results find that the SLCP has likely enhanced land tenure security by increasing the bargaining costs of village leaders' attempts to reallocate SLCP lands to other households. On the other hand, villagers tend to have less motivation to de-collectivise those forest lands enrolled in the EPBFCP, which somewhat stands in the way of the country's agenda to further de-collectivise communal forests and allocate them to individual households.

The heterogeneous impact of pension income on elderly living arrangements: evidence from China’s new rural pension scheme

This paper investigates the impact of pension income on living arrangements of the elderly. Taking advantage of a unique opportunity due to the recent establishment and expansion of the New Rural Pension Scheme in China, we explicitly address the endogeneity of pension status and pension income through a fixed-effect model with instrumental variable approach by exploiting exogenous time variation in the program implementation at county level. We find an overall positive effect of pension income on independent living as well as considerable heterogeneity. The positive income effects of the NRPS are concentrated among the elderly with adult children living nearby, of higher socio-economic status, and with better health at baseline; for other groups, the effects are insignificant. We also find that more generous programs exhibit larger effects. Our results highlight that living arrangement is multidimensional in rural China.

Carbon Cap-and-Trade in China: A Comprehensive Framework

ABSTRACTThis article proposes a comprehensive framework to explore a possible carbon cap-and-trade scheme in China. By applying the case of China, our empirical results present the demand side and supply side of carbon-emission permits in the market and several other significant findings: (i) carbon dioxide (CO2) marginal abatement cost varies a lot among different regions; (ii) in total, CO2 emissions could have been reduced by 5.14 billion tons if all the provinces had achieved their anticipated environmental performance during 1997–2014; (iii) the equilibrium price of CO2 trading is 241 RMB/ton, irrelevant to the original allocation of allowances.

Variegated geographies of electronic waste: policy mobility, heterogeneity and neoliberalism

ABSTRACTA source of political conflicts, recurrent scandals and considerable geopolitical problems, electronic waste (e-waste) is a central challenge for contemporary societies. Drawing on Polanyian economic geography, this article provides a comparative reading of the extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme in China and France and shows that e-waste policy in China is not a replication of global north models, but rather a new hybrid outcome, where neoliberal tendencies are negotiated within the characteristics of a resilient state. In this way, it extends the variegated capitalism framework to the sphere of post-consumption.

The impacts of emissions accounting methods on an imperfect competitive carbon trading market

To achieve a reduction in carbon intensity, the Chinese government has committed to establishing a nationwide carbon market. In this study, an interregional input-output model is proposed to derive cost curves for regional marginal abatement and to estimate interregional embodied emissions. An emissions trading model is presented for exploring the impacts of emissions accounting methods on imperfect competitive trading markets in the context of China achieving its 12th FYP intensity reduction target. The results indicated that emissions permits could be reallocated according to the CBA method. This could reduce both carbon emissions and total cost. Compared to the PBA method, the CBA method could lead to a greater change in permit prices and the amount of carbon trading in an imperfect competitive carbon market. Moreover, more regions with market power could cause declines in permit prices, resulting in changes in abatement costs. In addition, seven pilot markets (excluding Hubei province) are net embodied emissions importers. Pilot trading schemes in China could lead to carbon leakage among the other non-trading regions and sectors.