My research analyzes the process by which public policy is made and implemented in China, including how different people and groups influence decisions, how policymakers respond to crisis events, what causes policies to change, and what the policies actually say and do—for example, whether they are feasible, strict, and predictable.

The focus of my research is on health and environmental policy. In health, I analyze how governments in China respond to disease outbreaks and to antibiotic resistance. In the environmental field, I analyze how different stakeholders in China advance urban sustainability and how they respond to environmental pollution.

Public policies shape people’s everyday lives—from public health and environmental protection to economic opportunity and social stability. Understanding how decisions are made helps explain why some problems are addressed effectively while others persist. This is particularly significant in China, where policy decisions affect a large and diverse population and often have global implications.

From a theoretical perspective, my research is embedded in the policy process literature, especially the Multiple Streams Framework and the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory. These and other policy process theories have been developed in North America and Europe. My research uses these theories to help understand policymaking in China and whether these international theories have explanatory power in China’s political context.

Through collaborations with other researchers I am extending this line of inquiry to other political systems with similar institutional characteristics, allowing for broader comparative insights into how policy processes operate beyond democracies.

Below is an overview of past project. See also my full list of publications here.

Patterns in Policymaking in China
According to the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET), government policy is generally stable, but occasionally we witness large-scale departure from existing policies. Together with Jialin Cammie Li (University of Arizona), I conducted a meta-analysis of 88 Chinese-language journal articles on PET in China. This project has been published in the Policy Studies Journal (2023). See full text here and blog post here.

Teaching the Multiple Streams Framework
This book chapter, co-authored with Nikolaos Zahariadis and Evangelia Petridou, describes the main concepts, key assumptions, and different hypotheses of the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) as well as learning objectives and pedagogy on how best to teach MSF. It has been published in the “Handbook of Teaching Public Policy,” edited by Emily St. Denny and Philippe Zittoun (2024). Click here to request a copy of this chapter.