Editors' Summary

In March 2008, the Chinese National People's Congress elevated the former State Environmental Protection Administration to the Ministry of Environmental Protection. The reform strengthens the environmental protection sector's administrative stability, political will, decisionmaking power, and access to resources. However, the new Ministry confronts insufficient legislation, ambiguous authority allocation, and weak central-local management. Future reform needs to focus on administrative law legislation and language clarification for existing regulations, establishment of collaborative frameworks, and application of incentive-based approaches to central-local relationships.