China's green transition is often perceived as a lesson in authoritarian efficiency. In just a few years, the state managed to improve air quality, contain dissent, and restructure local industry. Much of this was achieved through top-down, 'blunt force' solutions, such as forcibly shuttering or destroying polluting factories. This book argues that China's blunt force regulation is actually a sign of weak state capacity and ineffective bureaucratic control. Integrating case studies with quantitative evidence, it shows how widespread industry shutdowns are used, not to scare polluters into respecting pollution standards, but to scare bureaucrats into respecting central orders. These measures have improved air quality in almost all Chinese cities, but at immense social and economic cost. This book delves into the negotiations, trade-offs, and day-to-day battles of local pollution enforcement to explain why governments employ such costly measures, and what this reveals about a state's powers to govern society.

Winner, 2025 Lynton Keith Caldwell Award, American Political Science Association

‘Highly recommended’

G. A. McBeath Source: Choice

‘Van Der Kamp’s book should be read by all who are interested in environmental politics and the politics of policy implementation. It makes important conceptual and theoretical advances that enable us to understand how regulations are enforced in China and other states with weak institutions. The book is not only theoretically rich but is also grounded in detailed empirical analyses that expertly combine a wide range of data sources.’

Matthew Amengual - Associate Professor in International Business, University of Oxford

‘A significant, richly researched work that offers a captivating window into Chinese public administration, Clean Air at What Cost? will interest anyone concerned about the implementation of regulatory power. What van der Kamp has uncovered shatters the perennial dichotomy between rules-based versus problem-solving enforcement, showing that there exists a third, disquieting alternative that China has followed: blunt-force enforcement. This elegantly crafted, revelatory book offers a vital warning about the potential for regulatory arbitrariness and injustice, especially in weak, unstable states.’

Cary Coglianese - Edward B. Shils Professor of Law and Political Science, and Director, Penn Program on Regulation, University of Pennsylvania

‘Clean Air at What Cost is an excellent study on the how and with what of regulatory implementation in the decentralized and fragmented auspices of the Chinese political economy. There, ‘blunt force regulation’ is a sign of inefficient state capacity and questionable political will, as it is an authoritarian response to the environmental consequences associated with the country’s fast-speed development. I have long waited for an empirically rigorous study on a heretofore less understood dimension of China’s global economic rise.’

Roselyn Hsueh - author of Micro-institutional Foundations of Capitalism (2022) and China’s Regulatory State (2011)

‘This book is an essential read for anyone interested in environmental governance in China. Using quantitative and qualitative research methods, this book introduces the concept of blunt force regulation. It provides a much-needed update on environmental governance and offers an insightful analysis into state-society relations in China.’

Genia Kostka - Professor of Chinese Politics, Freie Universität Berlin

‘Denise van der Kamp leads the new generation of China scholars exploring the challenging nexus of policy implementation in contemporary China. Her work on blunt force regulation in China provides an exciting new framework through to understand how policy is enforced at the local level in China.’

Andrew Mertha - George and Sadie Hyman Professor of China Studies; Inaugural Director of the SAIS China Research Center, The Johns Hopkins University