Governing Food Safety in China

Yi Lu (J.S.D., Yale Law School) is Senior Lecturer at Peking University School of Transnational Law and Research Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. She is a Legal Specialist (Development Law) on the FAO Consultancy Roster. Her research focuses on food law and comparative governance.

“Governing Food Safety in China develops the concept of structured asymmetry, embracing the Communist Party, the government, and Chinese society. It also compares Chinese, US, and EU food safety law. This theoretically innovative book is essential reading for all interested in Chinese law and in food safety law anywhere in the world.”Francis Gregory Snyder, C.V. Starr Professor of Law Emeritus, EU Jean Monnet Professor ad personam, and Director of the Center for Research on Transnational Law, Peking University School of Transnational Law“A fascinating examination of how ideas about collaborative governance, developed for Western legal systems, can be applied to governance in China. Using these ideas, Lu shows the inadequacy of a classical authoritarian model to understand the Chinese case, while also demonstrating how that case demands revision of Western collaborative models.”Nicholas R. Parrillo, William K. Townsend Professor of Law and Professor of History, Yale Law School“Drawing on sixty-seven interviews conducted over six years, this book develops the Asymmetric Party-State-Society Triangle to explain how China’s food safety co-governance actually works. Its sustained dialogue with collaborative governance theory and its comparative assessment of Chinese, American, and European regulatory models set a new benchmark for regulatory scholarship.”Hualin SONG, Dean and Professor of Law, Nankai University Law School; Director, Nankai University Center for Medical and Health Law“This book observes the course of China’s food safety law and practices from a new perspective of the ‘triangular structure,’ allowing readers to understand the unique picture of co- governance in China, and also provides an explanatory framework for its dialogue with EU and USA.”Qinwei GAO, Professor at the Law School of Sun Yat-sen University, who has participated in the revision of China's Food Safety Law“As food safety increasingly shapes global trade, this book’s analysis of China’s evolving governance model and its growing influence in international standard-setting bodies such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission is both timely and illuminating. A major contribution to our understanding of China's role in global regulatory governance.”Ying Zhu, Associate Professor and Associate Dean (International Affairs), The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law“Lu Yi uses an asymmetric Party-State-Society Triangle structure to pierce to the heart of Chinese regulatory governance, focusing on the crucially important area of food safety. Her book is crucially important for everyone seeking to understand the Chinese approach to food safety governance and its impact on the world.”Susan Finder, Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Peking University School of Transnational Law

• PART I THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS AND FRAMEWORK CONSTRUCTION 1 Theoretical Lineage of Collaborative Governance 2 Institutional Genes of Collaborative Governance in China 3 The Asymmetric Party-State-Society Triangle: A Model of Chinese Collaborative Governance PART II THE TRIANGLE STRUCTURE IN ACTION: APEX, BASE, AND PIVOT 4 Apex Control: Dual Transmission of the Party in Food Safety Governance 5 Base Dominance: State’s Rigid Control in Food Safety 6 Pivot Dependence: The Limited Role of Society in Food Safety Oversight PART III COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND GOVERNANCE EFFECTIVENESS 7 The Parallel Structure: Collaborative Food Safety Governance in Western Democracies 8 Institutional Origins: Path Dependence and the Logic of Divergence 9 China and the West: Assessing Collaborative Governance Effectiveness PART IV THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE TRAJECTORIES 10 Theoretical Contributions of the Triangle Structure 11 Globalization and Challenges of Transnational Governance 12 The Future of Collaborative Governance with Chinese Characteristics