The Politics of Disaster Management in China

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Gang Chen

   Pages 1-9

3. Natural Disaster Management in Ancient China

   • Gang Chen

   Pages 11-22

4. From ROC to PRC: Modernization of China’s Disaster Management

   • Gang Chen

   Pages 23-34

5. The Reform Era: Institutional Changes and Evolution of Norms

   • Gang Chen

   Pages 35-49

6. Bureaucratic Politics at the Central Level

   • Gang Chen

   Pages 51-65

7. Central Versus Local

   • Gang Chen

   Pages 67-80

8. Military Forces in China’s Disaster Management

   • Gang Chen

   Pages 81-92

9. New Challenges from Popular Politics: NGOs, Commercial Organizations, Social Media, and Civic Society

   • Gang Chen

   Pages 93-108

10. “Reform 2.0”: Progress and Limits

    • Gang Chen

    Pages 109-120

11. China’s Natural Disaster Management: Implications for Non-democratic Governance

    • Gang Chen

    Pages 121-132

12. Back Matter

    Pages 133-137

    PDF

In China’s 4,000-year-long history and modern development, natural disaster management has been about not only human combat against devastating natural forces, but also institutional building, political struggle, and economic interest redistribution among different institutional players. A significant payoff for social scientists studying disasters is that they can reveal much of the hidden nature of political and economic processes and structures, particularly those in non-democracies, which are normally covered up with great care. This book reviews the problems and progress in the politics of China’s disaster management. It analyses the factors in China’s governance and political process that restrains its capacity to manage disasters. The book helps the audience better understand the dynamic relationship among various interest groups and civic forces in modern China’s disaster politics, with special emphasis on the process of pluralization, decentralization and fragmentation.

• China
• Disaster management
• Political economy
• Interest groups
• Environmental governance

• National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

  Gang Chen

Chen Gang is Senior Research Fellow at the East Asian Institute (EAI), National University of Singapore. His publications include China’s Climate Policy and Politics of China's Environmental Protection: Problems and Progress. He provides consultancy for the Singapore government on political and environmental issues in East Asia. He is frequently interviewed by media like The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, BBC, NHK, and Xinhua News Agency.

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