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39 Envtl. L. Rep. News & Analysis 10152 (2009)
China's Environmental Super Ministry Reform: Background, Challenges, and the Future

handle is hein.journals/elrna39 and id is 158 raw text is: China's Environmental Super Ministry Reform. Background, Challenges, and the Future by Xin QIU and Honglin LI Xin QIU is a Ph.D. candidate and visiting fellow at Vermont Law School. Honglin LI is Director of Law Programs, Yale-China Association.* Editors' Summary In March 2008, the Chinese National People's Con- gress elevated the former State Environmental Protec- tion 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. How- ever, the new Ministry confronts insufficient legislation, ambiguous authority allocation, and weak central-local management. Future reform needs to focus on admin- istrative law legislation and language clarification for existing regulations, establishment of collaborative frame- works, and application of incentive-based approaches to central-local relationships. * Xin QIU would like to thank the China Scholarship Council's and USAID's generous support for his fellowship and Prof. Tseming YANG, Vermont Law School, and Jenifer Kathryn Lamie, J.D. 2010 candidate of Vermont Law School. The authors would also like to thank Jennifer Turner, Director of the China Environment Forum, Wilson Center, Prof. Jerome Cohen, New York University Law School, Ann William, Executive Director, Yale-China Association, and Profs. Heng LIU, Zhiping LI, and Dejin GU, Sun Yat-Sen University Law School. All observations and analyses are the authors' own. On March 15, 2008, China's Eleventh National Peo- ple's Congress passed the super ministry reform (SMR) motion proposed by the State Council and created five super ministries, mostly combinations of two or more previous ministries or departments. The main purpose of this SMR was to avoid overlapping governmental responsi- bilities by combining departments with similar authority and closely related functions. One of the highlights was the eleva- tion of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) to the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), which we also refer to as the environmental SMR. The reference to super ministry is shorthand for the creation of a comprehensive responsibilities super administrative min- istry framework.1 In order to promote comprehensive man- agement and coordination, several departments are merged into a new entity, the super ministry, based on their similar goals and responsibilities. By enlarging the ministry's respon- sibilities and authority, the reform essentially turns some inter- departmental tasks to intradepartmental issues, so one single department can cope with comprehensive problems from multiple perspectives, avoiding overlapping responsibilities and authority. Thus, administrative efficiency is increased and administrative costs are reduced. During this SMR, MEP was upgraded and was the only department to retain its organizational structure and govern- mental responsibilities.2 This demonstrates the strong political will and commitment of China's central government to envi- ronmental protection. This Article first introduces the background of the SMR, followed by a discussion of the motivations and positive impacts of the SMR in the environmental protection sector. The Article then analyzes significant problems of the current environmental protection administrative framework, which the environmental SMR can potentially solve but so far has not touched. Finally, the Article presents recommendations on key issues for future development.' 1. Although there have been many explanations of super ministry, the most com- mon is the creation of a single ministry combining overlapping or closely re- lated departmental responsibilities. See SHI Yajun & SHI Zhengwen, Several Thoughts on Promoting the Reform of Super Ministry, 2 CHINESE PUB. ADMIN. 9-11 (2008); SHI Xuehua & SUN Fafeng, On Preventing Negative Effects of Super Ministry, 3 CHINESE PUB. ADMIN. 29-32 (2008); People's Daily, the Official Chinese Central News Agency, What Is Super Ministry'?, http://gov. people.com.cn/GB/46728/114889/index.html (last visited Dec. 21, 2008). 2. HUA Jianmin, State Councilor and Secretary- General, Instruction on Institu- tional Reform of China State Council, Mar. 11, 2008, http://www.chinaorg.cn/zt/ zt/2008-03/12/content 5190487.htm (last visited Dec. 21, 2008). 3. There is a lot of literature on government institutional reforms in China, but not much on the SMR. As of June 9, 2008, the representative articles on China's SMR were the following: CHEN Tianxiang, A Frame With Big Departments: A New Rout for Reforming the Governmental Institutions, 2 ACAD. RES. 40-47 (2008); ZHANG Chuangxin, 7he Analysis on the Relations Between Big Ministry andSmall Government, 5 CHINESE PUB. ADMIN. 36-38 (2008); CHEN Wei, 7he 7hinking of Certain Questions for Super Ministries System Reform, 2 J. SICHUAN ADMIN. C. 22-24 (2008); WANG Yukai, Analysis on Super Ministry Reform in China and Its Challenges, 3 TRIB. STUDY 52-55 (2008); SHI Yajun & SHI Zhengwen, supra note 1. However, none of these focus on environmental SMR. ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 39 ELR 10152 2-2009