In May 2026, China launched the sixth batch of its third round of central environmental inspections. Seven teams entered seven provinces and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. By June …

Shen was selected as one of only 36 awardees selected from 172 applications from 94 member institutions.

How can governments sustain compliance improvements when institutions falter and ad hoc enforcement fades? This study introduces “regularized campaigns” as an institutional innovation that combines t...

Public Participation and Climate Adaptation in China. Ep. 246.

While government message boards and NGOs are growing in importance, community self-organising remains crucial

The bulk of global greenhouse gas emissions come from countries that are not democratic, and many big oil and gas exporters are also authoritarian

Policy experiments are crucial for fostering innovation and mitigating risks and can serve as catalysts for transformative changes. This study investigates the governance of policy experiments in Chi...

Policy experiments are crucial for fostering innovation and mitigating risks and can serve as catalysts for transformative changes. This study investigates the governance of policy experiments in Chi...

by Shiran Victoria Shen In a world facing climate crises, pandemics, and geopolitical shifts, governments must embrace bold policy innovation.  Scholars have long examined the drivers of polic…

Can Autocracy Handle Climate Change? By Shiran Victoria Shen, Stanford University Existing literature on climate politics predominantly concentrates on democracies. However, there is a pressing need to examine how authoritarian regimes respond to climate change, given their growing impact on global carbon emissions and their populations’ acute climate vulnerability. Extant research often assumes that authoritarian regimes have inherent advantages in addressing climate change, leading to overly optimistic perspectives on their capabilities.

Can Autocracy Handle Climate Change?

In an era of disruptive global challenges, from climate crises to pandemics, understanding the drivers of drastic policy innovation is paramount. This study defines drastic policy innovation as a sig...

Social competitions between neighbourhoods galvanise leadership and inspire collective action to reduce informal waste burning in urban Uganda