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Explora: Environment
and Resource The development of the river chief in Nantong and Huzhou

(iii) Are there any major differences between your river designed a soft mixture (Figure 1) when setting the policy
chief system policies and those of Wuxi City? that they expected lower-level governments to implement.
(iv) Was there any policy learning in the process of The Jiangsu documentation clarified the objectives,
developing your river chief? tasks, and schedule for reform. The instruction required
(v) What achievements have you made based on the the establishment of a river chief system in all counties,
transfer of your river chief system? townships, village rivers, and ponds catchment areas across
(vi) Can you discuss any problems that have been identified the province by 2015. In response, Nantong issued the
in the operation of your river chief system?
Opinions on Strengthening the Work of the River Chief
In addition to these interviews, we also carried out System of River Management in January 2014. While the
44
several field visits to observe the river courses and water hierarchical pressure to comply with the directive cannot
bodies in the municipalities under investigation, all of which be dismissed, interviews indicated that Nantong chose to
were underpinned by observational logs. The combination copy the Provincial model due to the local cadre’s desire
of these sources helped assure the reliability of the data. “to obtain the legitimacy for the river chief system in the
In summary, we utilized a “most different” case study municipality” (X, interview, 13 September 2019).
methodology. To do this, we selected two municipalities Taking a step back, the document “Decision on
that operated under different provincial governments, Comprehensively Establishing the River Chief System
addressed different types of water structure needs, and Comprehensively Strengthening the Comprehensive
implemented their river chief system at different times, and Improvement and Management of River Courses”
45
acted under different hierarchical imperatives. By doing issued by the Wuxi Municipal Committee and the Wuxi
this, we were able to gather data for a policy transfer study Municipal People’s Government is the earliest official policy
that expanded beyond the singular qualitative models document related to the development of the river chief
predominant in the literature, allowing a comparative study system in China. This document (and the policy contained
of different jurisdictions adopting the same base policy within it) is the summary of the measures taken by Wuxi
modeled on a single data source (Wuxi). This has allowed in the second half of 2007 to deal with the cyanobacteria
us to look at micro-level and meso-level factors impacting crisis in Taihu Lake.
decisions related to transfer that are often overlooked by
single case studies and large N quantitative studies. “Decision on Comprehensively Establishing the River
Chief System” included 11 detailed policy tools covering 11
3. Findings aspects of water management, including the organizational
structure, appointment of river leaders, renovation
3.1. Nantong: Transfer under pressure
planning, responsibility decomposition, work focus, law
As illustrated in Figure 2, the transfer of the river chief enforcement supervision, departmental division of labor,
in the Nantong region is a typical example of transfer water quality monitoring, assessment and accountability,
within hierarchies of governance where a higher authority social participation, and institutional construction (“Water
absorbs a policy and subsequently promotes it back down Quality Control Objectives and Assessment Measures for
to lower-level units. 3,43 In the case of Jiangsu, according to Rivers [Lakes, Reservoirs, Oscillation, and Tunnels] in
our interviews, administrators were heavily influenced by Wuxi”). The stated goal is “the complete renovation of
2
the Wuxi model. However, interviews and documents also rivers and lakes and the comprehensive improvement of the
indicated that the resultant policy was not a direct copy. water environment.” 45
Rather, administrators looked at many of the models that
had emerged in the province after the Wuxi model and Moving back to the provincial level, Jiangsu released its
river chief document in 2012. This document modified
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the Wuxi documentation by adding a detailed explanation
Provincial policy of the significance, guiding ideology, basic principles, and
Policy Mandatory goals of the river chief system. However, the documentation
absorption and policy
adjustment also added a series of extra measures that were found in
other river chief models. These were added by officials who
hoped this would make Jiangsu a model province (X and
Original policy (s) Policy
requirement Y, interviews, 14 September 2019) and, in turn, enhance
the promotional prospects of Jiangsu officials. As a result,
Direct
Indirect 2 The annex details the list of work leadership groups and
Figure 2. Policy transfer under vertical governance pressures establishes an assessment indicator system.

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2025) 5 doi: 10.36922/EER025110018