Rethinking the influences of international regimes on China: The UNFCCC and the development of policy coordination in China

The theme of this study is to explore and analysis the phenomena that the international regimes' influence the development policy coordination in China. This is empirically documented and analysis through a case study of factors influencing China's policy coordination toward climate change. The thesis focuses on what role the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) plays for the policy coordination toward climate change in China.; International regimes are changing the environment in which governments operate. Even in so-called domestic issues like climate change, policy coordination in China is increasingly affected by the factors in the UNFCCC, as follows: norms and rules in the UNFCCC and related protocol, national communication from Parties in the UNFCCC, issues resolving procedures through Conference of the Parties1, and Global Environmental Facility for climate change (GEF).; In this thesis, I explore international regimes as influences on policy coordination in China mostly from fieldwork. The dissertation aims to demonstrate the argument that international regimes have contributed to the development of policy coordination of China, taking the influence of climate change regime as a departure. Based on my empirical study, the UNFCCC is in the negotiation and operation stage in which China share little concrete responsibilities and there was little policy coordination in China before the formulation of international regimes related to this field, the main theoretical argument in this study is: the UNFCCC plays a significant and unique role in the development of policy coordination in China from the explanation context of interests based, domestic institution based and knowledge based. In my thesis, impacts imposed by the UNFCCC are independent variable, and the development of policy coordination in China is dependent variable.; 1"Conference of the Parties" means the Conference of the Parties to the Convention. "Convention" means the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in New York on 9 May 1992.