Ecological threats continue to proliferate at a worrisome pace and in many circumstances defy efforts to neutralize them. Mounting concerns about the gap between the scale of biophysical disruption and policy performance have stimulated both academic and engineering-type interest in the effectiveness/ consequences of environmental governance regimes. An issue which has not received sufficient attention is the degree to which such regulatory mechanisms are in tune with their socio-institutional setting rather than merely the natural systems which they aim to safeguard. China’s experience suggests that this is a question which merits close examination
