Political Geography 62 (2018) 58e67

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Political Geography

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River leaders in China: Party-state hierarchy and transboundary governance

* Shiuh-Shen Chien , Dong-Li Hong

Department of Geography, National Taiwan University (NTU), Taiwan article info abstract

Article history: It is generally agreed that traditional territorial-fixed systems face transboundary difficulties that char- Received 2 December 2016 acterize a territorial mismatch between flowing materials and political boundaries. Hierarchization, a Received in revised form process of forming a hierarchy to generate transboundary power to transcend the territorial mismatch, is 23 September 2017 commonly founded in terms of transboundary river governance. For example, the existing literature Accepted 6 October 2017 discusses the hierarchization of river governance in either the establishment of a new governmental Available online 14 October 2017 agency or creation of an ad hoc committee. However, the river leader policy introduced nationwide in China in 2016 is distinct from these two approaches. River leadership is assigned to certain prefecture- Keywords: fi River leader level cadres, whose career advancement depends on achieving speci c goals related to the quality of Transboundary governance rivers for which they are made accountable. River leaders' transboundary powers to coordinate their Hierarchization subordinate officials and resources are not a function of their government positions but rather their cadre Party-state rank hierarchy within China's Leninist-style authoritarian party-state mechanism. We call this process Chinese Communist Party ‘hierarchization through partification’. With an empirical focus on the river leader policy of in , capital of Province, we present a detailed discussion of hierarchization through par- tification in China, including its characteristics, advantages and limitations. This study depends on secondary data like official documents and news reports, along with first-hand site visits on river landscapes and field interviews with officials and citizens. This paper's core contributions are to enrich the theoretical discussion of different types of hierarchization that deal with transboundary affairs and to improve understanding how the authoritarian states like China initiate their own forms of river governance that are not properly examined by the existing transboundary governance literature. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction governance differ in their details (Toset, Gleditsch, & Hegre, 2000), the most common two hierarchization strategies are (1) to estab- Developing effective governance of transboundary resources is a lish an ad hoc committee, or (2) to authorize a new governmental significant challenge (Blatter, 2004; Brenner, 1999b; Elden, 2005). bureau. Examples include the International Commission for the Traditional territory-fixed systems are poorly adapted to respond to Protection of the Rhine in Europe (Huisman, De Jong, & Wieriks, the externalities of fluid entities that span multiple administrative 2000), and the Connecticut River Joint Commission (Vogel, 2015) boundaries, mainly due to a lack of adequate transboundary power and the Tennessee Valley Authority (Selznick, 1949) in the US. to coordinate different inter-territorial authorities and to transcend In China, governing rivers has been a crucial task since ancient territorial mismatches between flowing materials and political times (Wittfogel, 1957). As in many other countries, the current boundaries. The existing literature suggests different strategies to Chinese government has widely adopted the strategy of establish- generate a proper hierarchy among related stakeholders to improve ing ad hoc committees and governmental agencies, such as the inter-territorial integration and coordination. We call this process Yellow River Water Resource Commission, the Huai River Water ‘hierarchization’. While various implementations of river basin Resource Commission and Guangdong's Rivers Management Commission (Yi & Ma, 2009). In addition, on 15th October 2016, a new national policy called ‘one river one leader (Ch. he zhang)’ was * Corresponding author. announced by the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively E-mail address: [email protected] (S.-S. Chien). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2017.10.001 0962-6298/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. S.-S. Chien, D.-L. Hong / Political Geography 62 (2018) 58e67 59

Deepening Reforms (Ch. zhonggong zhongyang quanmian shenhua organizations. gaige lingdao xiaozu).1 Under the policy, members of local Chinese Increasing transboundary flows in capital, information, people Communist Party's (CCP) standing committees are appointed as and materials challenge the dominant status of territorial-based river leaders. Some of these appointees bring little or even no geopolitics and its related traditional modes of power and previous work experience in addressing environmental issues, but accountability. Considerable political and social tensions have been their future career advancement is dependent on achieving specific generated due to a mismatch between political boundaries of milestones for improving and maintaining river governance. This traditional administrative territory and the corresponding trans- institutional design ensures that these cadres are politically moti- boundary ranges of flowing materials. Hierarchization, the political vated to mobilize resources at their disposal and to coordinate their processes of inter-territorial integration, is a solution to producing subordinates to achieve the assigned goals. related transboundary power to transcend the territorial mismatch Despite its dramatic economic transition, China is still tightly conundrum. controlled under the authoritarian CCP (Zheng, 2010). Previous studies on authoritarian environmentalism has examined how the 2.1. A new governmental bureau: hierarchization through re- state makes use of its resources and power in an authoritarian way bureaucratization to respond to environmental-related challenges (Eaton & Kostka, 2014; Gilley, 2012; Moore, 2014). This paper aims to further link Problems of mismatched political boundaries and flowing ma- this understanding on authoritarian environmentalism with the terials are frequently resolved by the creation of new governmental transboundary governance discussion. Three key mechanisms institutions that fits the specific boundaries in question (Brenner, within the CCP's Leninist-style party-state authoritarian regime are 1999a, 1999b; Elden, 2005; Popescu, 2008). Through top-down specifically highlighted, including (1) party monopoly on power, (2) processes of legislation, authorization, or institutionalization, this importance of rank hierarchy, and (3) performance-oriented cadre strategy establishes a legally authorized hierarchy in which the evaluations. We thus argue that the river leader policy demon- previously autonomous territories are institutionally integrated strates a unique way of what-we-called hierarchization through and commanded. We call this process ‘hierarchization through re- partification, in the sense that the Chinese authoritarian regime can bureaucratization’. use its inherent personnel cadre-rank hierarchy within its party- A typical example is the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) state structure to overcome the territorial mismatch for trans- established by the US federal government to improve flood control, boundary governance. soil conservation and reforestation efforts over the Tennessee River The rest of this paper is divided into three main sections. which includes lands in multiple states (Selznick, 1949). The TVA Section Two reviews different types of hierarchization, and char- offers a formal and stable hierarchy through the institutional re- acteristics of hierarchization through partification in particular. form of the national bureaucracy, and thus can mitigate conflicts Sensitivity to political scale in each hierarchy is also discussed. and facilitate integration among administrative territories within a Section Three discusses the case of the river leader in Kunming, a country. This can accelerate and enhance the effectiveness of city which has pioneered the river leader policy experiment since transboundary governance, particularly if it is headed by a strong 2009. Section Four examines the effectiveness and limitations of leadership figure. However, in democratic contexts, implementing the strategy of hierarchization through partification that deals this strategy requires a long and painstaking process of legislation with various transboundary affairs in China. Research methods and authorization. include a literature review on transboundary studies and authoritarian environmentalism in general and China environ- 2.2. Ad hoc committee: informal hierarchization behind interactive mental research in particular; content analysis of related policy negotiation documents and news reports about the river leader system and field interviews with associated officials and cadres, and site-visits Compared to re-bureaucratization, an even more commonly on river landscapes and conversations with citizens living around seen transboundary river governance policy is to establish an ad in Kunming City (the first time in 2012 and the second time in hoc committee to improve transboundary coordination power 2015). between all stakeholder territorial governments (Bulkeley, 2005). For example, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) and Greater Mekong Sub-region, two inter-governmental organizations that 2. Hierarchization in transboundary river governance work directly with the governments of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Myanmar, jointly managing the Territory, a spatial concept by which the nation-state exercises Mekong River to ensure sustainability (Hirsch, 2016; Su, 2012). power and maintains sovereignty, has risen in tandem with the MRC has successfully blocked several development projects, modern state as the foremost means of political and economic or- overruling investors in member countries and international or- ganization (Johnston, 1990; Johnston, 2001; Sack, 1986). Modern ganizations (Sneddon & Fox, 2006). Similar operations are found nation states’ borders and legal and political systems are all terri- in the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine in torial in nature and sub-national (regional and local) governments Europe (Huisman et al., 2000). Also the Connecticut River Joint also have their own administrative territories. Corresponding Commission is composed of New Hampshire's Connecticut River leaders at various levels are held accountable for events within Valley Resource Commission and Vermont's Connecticut River their respective jurisdictions. Therefore, the widespread adoption Watershed Advisory Commission (Vogel, 2015). While the estab- of territorial thinking is not only due to its use in defining and lishment of a new bureau typically takes place in a single national consolidating the exercise of power but also because it assigns clear democratic state, creation of an ad hoc committee is more flexible, responsibility and accountability to specific territorial-based which can be used to manage both sub-national rivers (such as the Connecticut River) and international rivers (such as the Mekong River and the Rhine). 1 Documentation title: Policy opinion regarding fully implementation of river Two further points are noted. First, generally speaking, without leader policy [Ch. guanyu quanmian tuidong hezhangzhi deyijian]. See news http:// weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id¼2309614030522513826077, accessed by 30th coercive power and organizational hierarchy, the implementation November 2016. of ad hoc committee policy relies on voluntary engagement of each 60 S.-S. Chien, D.-L. Hong / Political Geography 62 (2018) 58e67 relatively independent territorial government. The committee Commissar of the Garrison District. The members of the local CCP mainly serves an advisory role and has no regulatory power. But its standing committee, composing the so-called group leadership (Ch. joint openness to public involvement still plays a role in balancing lingdao banzi), collectively have final say over personnel manage- power among participating local governments at different political ment in the entire province. Therefore these CCP standing com- scales and has actually prevented some large-scale development mittee members enjoy higher rank within the party than other vice projects from moving forward (Vogel, 2015). Second, it must be governors and most directors of departments in the provincial noted that hierarchical relations and uneven influence could exist government. The same principle also applies to the local standing among members in the ad hoc committee. The political processes in committee at the prefecture-level to its counterpart government, generating power inequality can be understood as an informal hi- and further down to the county, town and township levels. erarchization. Given that such informal hierarchization is based on Second, given that the party controls the cadres (Ch. dang guan interactive relationship between members rather than on an gangbu), local leaders are not elected democratically but rather are institutionalized and organizational structure, this kind of hierar- assigned from upper-level party units. Cadre selection is the most chization is relatively more arbitrary and dynamic, and is imple- crucial mechanism to maintain CCP authoritarian governance. mented on a case by case basis. Promotion or demotion of cadres operates through a unique personnel management system called the nomenklatura (Ch. bian zhi), which arranges all party, governmental, military and enter- 2.3. River leader: hierarchization through partification prise posts in a ranked hierarchy (Brodsgaard, 2001; Heilmann & Kirchberger, 2000). All posts can be categorized in five major China's river leader policy creates a distinct form of hierarchi- ranks: (1) national level (Ch. guojia ji), (2) provincial/ministry level zation. By assigning higher-ranking leading party cadres re- (Ch. sheng-bu ji), (3) prefecture/department level (Ch. di-ting ji), (4) sponsibility for mainstream rivers, China's river leader policy county/division level (Ch xian-chu ji), and (5) township/section mobilizes administrative resources among various territories level (Ch. xiang-ke ji)(Lieberthal & Oksenberg, 1988; Huang, 2002; within a transboundary river basin (Ministry of Environmental Chan, 2004; Chien, 2013). There is a power and cadre hierarchy Protection of the People's Republic of China, 2009). Thus, it cre- within the CCP, meaning that higher-ranked cadres hold more ates a new hierarchical structure to command officials in each organizational authority and power than their lower-ranked subordinate territorial administrative, not by establishing a new counterparts. For example, members of the PSC are listed at the authority in the bureaucratic system but through an existing national level and members of the politburo are listed at the vice- personnel hierarchy under the Chinese Communist Party. We call national-level.3 Such posts are organizationally more powerful this approach hierarchization through partification, referring a than most ministers and provincial governors who occupy the political process in which Leninist-style authoritarian party dictates provincial/ministerial rank (Zheng, 2010). the operations of civil servants and government agencies (Phong & Third, under the nomenklatura system, local leaders are selected Beresford, 1998) (see Fig. 1).2 The hierarchy upon which the river through a performance-oriented cadre evaluation system (Edin, leader policy relies is consistent with the CCP's authoritarian party- 2003; Zhou, 2008). At the start of the year, upper-level of CCP state framework, in which power and accountability are linked units assign key performance targets to their subordinates. Perfor- within a hierarchical organization of party cadres. Its operations mance is evaluated at the end of each year and these evaluations can be further explained in three dimensions. play a critical role in career advancement, giving upper-level cadres First, communist China operates on the Leninist concept of an effective mechanism for adjusting the behavior of lower-level ‘party leading the government’, which legitimizes the party's au- cadres (Edin, 2003; Li & Zhou, 2005). This has been successfully thority to lead (Ch. yi dang ling zheng). Thus, the party line exercises used to steer local government action over time, moving the absolute authority over all government administrations and orga- emphasis from economic development in the 1990s (Chien, 2007)to nizations (Wright, 2016; Zheng, 2010). At the central level, the slowing the rate of farmland loss after the late 2000s (Chien, 2015). Politburo's Standing Committee of CCP (Ch. zhongyang zhengzhiju) The case of river leader policy suggests that China initiates the convenes between 15 and 25 senior cadres in regular meetings to hierarchization of transboundary governance through adopting lead the state. Power within the Politburo is further centralized in and extending the existing party-rank structure, rather than by the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), composed of five to nine authorizing a new governmental agency. Higher-ranked cadres are members (seven for the current PSC starting from 2012). Table 1 correspondingly assigned significant performance requirements for clearly shows that some of these cadres simultaneously hold po- river governance. In prefecture-level cities, the most powerful sitions within the government but some only work within the party cadres are the members of the local CCP standing committee who organization. However, the latter are more powerful than all min- rank at the prefecture level. Though the purviews of some officials isters and other governmental officials in the State Council because originally had nothing to do with governmental affairs, linking their of their membership of PSC, thus supporting the principle of ‘party career advancement to river improvement gives them a serious leading the government’. incentive to coordinate territorial administrations and resources to Similarly, at each administrative level, the local CCP standing address the quality of rivers that flow through the territory of their committee holds the highest authority over local governments. For subordinate county-level cadres. example, members of the local CCP standing committee at the provincial-level normally includes the party secretary, governor (co-posted as first vice party secretary), first deputy governor, chief 2.4. Hierarchization through partification: advantages and of the United Front Work Committee, chief of Secretary of the limitations Commission for Discipline Inspection, chief of the Propaganda Department, chief of Organizational Department and Political The Chinese river leader policy adopts a distinct hierarchization

2 However, we notice that scholars use the term partification differently. For 3 Cadres at the vice-national level are those politically ranked below the national example, in the case of the Nazi Party (1919e1945), Orlow (2008) uses the term to level but above the provincial/ministry level. A similar principle also applies to the refer the imposition or applicability of a set of policy goals derived from the party's cadres at the vice -provincial/ministry-level, the vice-prefecture/department-level, values or ideological base to the conduct of societal relations. the vice-county/division-level, and the vice-township/section-level. .S he,D-.Hn oiia egah 2(08 58 (2018) 62 Geography Political / Hong D.-L. Chien, S.-S. e 67

Fig. 1. Two different organizational forms of hierarchization. Note: the dotted line in the case of the ad hoc committee indicates the hierarchization power relationship among members is informal behind interactive negotiation, in comparison with the solid line in the case of the state bu- reaucracy and party nomenclature systems where the hierarchical power relationships between upper-level officials and cadres and their subordinates are formal and official. Source: Compiled by authors 61 62 S.-S. Chien, D.-L. Hong / Political Geography 62 (2018) 58e67

Table 1 China's party-state positions in the Politburo's Standing Committee.

Rank Party position(s) Government position(s)

1 C General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee C President of the People's Republic of China (PRC) C Chairman of the CCP Central Military Commission C Chairman of the PRC Central Military Commission 2 C Party Secretary of the State Council of the People's Republic of China C Premier of the State Council of the PRC 3 C Party Secretary of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress C Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress 4 C Party Secretary of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political C Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Consultative Conference 5 C Top-ranked Secretary of the Central Secretariat of the CCP NONE C President of the CCP Central Party School 6 C Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection NONE 7 C Deputy Party Secretary of the State Council of the People's Republic of China C First Vice Premier of the State Council of the PRC 8 C Chairman of the Central Guidance Commission for Building Spiritual Civilization NONE 9 C Secretary of the Central Political and Legislative Committee NONE

Note: The number of members of Politburo's Standing Committee of CCP has varied from five (1982e1992) to seven (1992e2002 and 2012- present) to nine (2002e2007). For this study we assume nine members, which corresponds better to the situation of local standing CCP committees. Source: Compiled by authors

strategy which is profoundly embedded in its authoritarian party- tends to result in the forced displacement of citizens, land devel- state regime. Although political tensions could exist in all opment speculation, and corruption in the implementation of different types of hierarchization, political tension might be more spatial or environmental policies. conspicuous in hierarchization through re-bureaucratization and informal hierarchization behind interactive negotiation. This is 3. River leaders in China because both more or less rely inter-territorial compromises and/or legislative processes, which entails considerable political conten- 3.1. Difficulty in promoting local environmental management in tion. However, political tension is muted in the hierarchization China produced by the river leader policy due to the relatively unques- tioned top-down authority exercised within the CCP's cadre- In recent years, China's central government has focused more on ranking structure. environmental issues, partly as a result of local dissatisfaction over fi One advantage of hierarchization through parti cation lies in its worsening ecological degradation and partly in response to inter- use of existing hierarchical structures and ranking logic within the national concerns over China's status as the world's largest emitter party system. Without any necessary bureaucratic reform and of CO2. This shift of focus is currently being pushed down through legislation, higher-rank cadres can be motivated to mobilize lower- provincial and local governments. fi ranking of cials to implement desired policies within the party- For example, to prevent further farmland loss, the central gov- state mechanism (Chien, 2010). In addition, without the need for ernment in 2005 set a quota for the nationwide preservation of 1.8 negotiation and compromises, it suggests the possibility of fast billion mu of farmland.4 This quota was broken down by province, policy outcomes on transboundary affairs, consistent with other and then further by cities and counties, with individual adminis- studies on authoritarian environmentalism (Gilley, 2012). trators at each level being assigned a specific performance target. fi However, hierarchization through parti cation presents some While farmland is still vulnerable to misappropriation, the rate at clear shortcomings. First, cadre motivation relies on performance which farmland is being lost has slowed considerably due to this fi evaluations, which must be easily quanti able for comparison. policy shift (Chien, 2015). However river management differs from fi Therefore, the river leader policy under the parti ed hierarchi- farmland affairs, given that farmland is physically fixed in a zation inevitably is restricted to a very small number of perfor- particular jurisdiction while rivers flow across many administrative mance indicators. For example, the river leader policy ends up in boundaries (Lo & Tang, 1994). This transboundary characteristic mainly focusing on pollution control, which is frequently the most makes it difficult to effectively implement traditional territory- urgent dimension and is also the easiest item to quantify. However, fixed governance methods. sustainable river governance consists of complex and intertwined social, cultural, and environmental issues including fishing, water 3.2. River leader in Kunming, China transport, flood control, citizen access to riverfronts, pollution management and so on. The river leader policy was first introduced in Wuxi city (Jiangsu Second, the implementation of the hierarchization through province) in 2007 to address severe pollution in Tai Lake (Chien, partification is highly dependent on the task-assigned cadres, and 2016, p. p1; Dai, 2015). The policy was later implemented in differences in approach and personality between successive ad- Henan, Liaoning and Yunnan (2008), Guizhou and Hubei (2009), ministrators may disrupt continuity in policy implementation. In Anhui, Zhejiang and Tianjin (2013). The central government addition, local leaders in China are frequently rotated, with tenure adopted it as a national policy in the end of 2016. The process from averaging only two to three years (Chen, Luo, She, & Ying, 2016; local experimentations to national policy indicates that the central Eaton & Kostka, 2014). Thus, cadres must establish a basis for government in Beijing endorsed the local solution of applying party performance evaluation within one or two years, incentivizing local hierarchy mechanisms to deal with inter-territorial difficulties in leaders to pursue potentially shortsighted approaches to meet their the category of environmental governance (Heilmann, 2008). To assigned milestones. investigate the detailed mechanisms and effectiveness of the river Finally, the partified hierarchization is based on the CCP's party- leader policy, this paper focuses on the example of Dian Lake in state rank hierarchy which is characteristically authoritarian and top-down. China still heavily restricts the media and civil society. Limited social participation together with aggressive local leaders 4 mu is a Chinese unit for measuring areas. 1 ha equals to 15 mu. S.-S. Chien, D.-L. Hong / Political Geography 62 (2018) 58e67 63

Fig. 2. PAnlong river and Accountability of Wuhua subsection leader. Source: Compiled by authors prefecture-level Kunming City, the capital of Yunnan Province. “5 þ 2” (meaning working five days for weekday and two days for Covering 300 square km, Dian Lake is the sixth largest lake in China. weekend), and “716” (meaning working seven days a week and 16 h It features few natural outlets and has a long natural water ex- a day). change period of four years (SEE Fig. 2). A local catchphrase reflects Qiu's comprehension of how the This slow refresh rate, combined with intensive local animal strategy of hierarchization through partification could be used to husbandry and industrial development, has resulted severe pollu- implement a workable solution to deal with Dian Lake basin tion, with particularly high levels of phosphate and eutrophication. pollution: “Governing good lakes only after improving water Beginning in the 1980s, control measures were initially imple- quality (Ch. zhihu xian zhishui), improving water quality greater mented first with the establishment of the Dian Lake Protection only after knowing how to manage rivers (Ch. zhishui xian zhihe), Commission in 1989 and then the Dian Lake Authority in 2002. managing rivers better only after sorting out pollution (Ch. zhihe However, implementation results were unsatisfactory in the case of xian zhiwu), sorting out pollution only after commanding civil Dian Lake (See Fig. 3) and other instances in China for two reasons. servants well (Ch. zhiwu xian zhiren), commanding civil servants First, local leaders prioritized revenue-oriented economic initia- only after giving right incentives to motivate cadres (Ch. zhiren xian tives. Therefore, despite an increasing awareness of environmental zhiguan).” In the Leninist's one-party-state authoritarian system, concerns, local cadres are strongly incentivized to encourage eco- how to effectively motivate cadres is the key to managing public nomic development (Gilley, 2012; Eaton & Kostka, 2014; Mertha, affairs, including river issues. 2005; Wang et. al, 2015). In addition, the Ministry of Commerce Qiu assigned members of the Kunming CCP standing committee has considerably greater influence than the Ministry of Environ- to take responsibility for the most polluted mainstreams flowing mental Protection (Ran, 2013).5 into Dian Lake (SEE Table 2). These mainstreams run across various River leader policy was first experimented in Kunming in 2008 county-level administrations, creating considerable transboundary by QIU He, who served in Jiangsu for more than two decades before challenges. Each mainstream may be fed by various tributaries, and being transferred to Kunming for a promotion to party secretary of a mainstream may be divided into many subsections. Tributaries Kunming in 2007. Qiu was famous for pushing subordinate cadres and subsections measure up to a few dozen kilometers long, and to carry out their assigned goals by whatever means, or so-called are likely to be contained within a single county-level adminis- the Qiuhe model (Tsai, 2011).6 When Qiu was in Suqian in Jiangsu tration. Thus the chief of that county-level administration is in the early 2000s, economic development was highly prioritized, assigned as the leader for that tributary or subsection (Ch. he duan and Qiu's administration even assigned performance quotas to zhang). According to the CCP's nomenclature system, task-assigned elementary school teachers to attract investment projects. Several prefecture-level and vice-prefecture-level cadres are organiza- local slogans in Kunming illustrate Qiu's approach: “White plus tionally more powerful than their county-level counterparts. black” (Ch. bai jia hei, meaning working daytime and nighttime), Qiu took direct responsibility for the Panlong River, the most important and complex inflow for Dian Lake. River protection ac- counts for about 15% of the total evaluation score,7 with evaluation items including water quality, guarantees for sorting out muddy 5 Green non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in China did play a role in the early 2000s. For example, the size of the Nu river dam project was reduced mainly because the state responded to civic pressure. However, the political space of green NGOs was constrained again with the beginning of the Xi administration. 7 In some cities like Zhoukuo in Henan and Hefei in Hubei, pollution control is a 6 QIU's aggressiveness in making better economic performances assigned from veto indicator for cadre performance evaluation, creating huge pressure and the top is even called as ‘Qiu He model (Ch. moshi) (See Tsai, 2011); and interview motivation for river leaders to do whatever they can to clean up river pollution. See 2008 August (in Jiangsu), 2013 July and 2015 January (in Yunan). Chien (2016). 64 S.-S. Chien, D.-L. Hong / Political Geography 62 (2018) 58e67

Fig. 3. Quality of pollution control in Dian lake (1987e2013). Source: He et al. (2015)

Table 2 Kunming's river leaders and supervised local administrative territories.

River and river leader Party position(s) of the river leader Local territories supervised by river leader

Panlong river - Secretary of Standing Committee (SC) of Kunming CCP (Qiu, He) - Member of CCP Yunnan Provincial Committee Xishan District National tourist District Baoxiang river - Secretary of SC of Kunming CCP Guandu District (Zhang, Zulin) Development District Xiba river - Member of SC of Kunming CCP Wuhua District (Huang, Yunpo) - Vice Major of Kunming Xishan District Wulong river - Member of SC of Kunming CCP Xishan District (Fang, Xingguo) - Political commissar of Garrison Chuanfang river - Member of SC of Kunming CCP Xishan District (Jin, Zhiwei) - Head of United Front Work Department of CCP Wuhua District Chai river - Member of SC of Kunming CCP Jinning County (Li, Wenrong) Maliao river - Member of SC of Kunming CCP Development District (Ying, Yongsheng) - Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection of CCP Chenggong County Guandu District Xiaba river - Member of SC of Kunming CCP Guandu District (Liu, Guangxi) Wangjiadui river - Member of SC of Kunming CCP Xishan District (Li, Yifei) - Head of Publicity Department of CCP Tanglang river - Member of SC of Kunming CCP Xishan District (Guo, Hongpo) - Head of Organization Department of CCP Anning City

Source: Adapted from the “2010 Regulations for Management and Assessment of River Leader Assistants in Kunming” water (Ch. bao zhi zang), for regulating disorder behaviors in facilities, emission control infrastructure, and upgrading of agri- making pollution (Ch. bao zhi luan), and for maintaining scenic river cultural and animal husbandry industries and manufacturing suc- vistas (Ch. bao lu hua). River protection performance is evaluated in cessfully reduced total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and terms of pollution control and land use activities on adjacent riv- ammoniac nitrogen (NH3-N) levels (See Fig. 3 above). However, erbanks. Water pollution assessment facilities still can be installed, these dramatic improvements were not sustained following the using the starting and end assessment points to clarify account- end of Qiu's tenure. ability to corresponding leaders for any tributary or subsection (See At least three social and political externalities need to be Fig. 2 above). Financial bonuses are provided as incentives for addressed alongside this short-term success. First, urgent pollution success, but those who failed to accomplish their performance control and management is easily quantifiable through scientific targets may face fines or political demotion. All these institutional measurement, thus incentivizing local leaders to emphasize designs behind the river leader policy give strong incentives to pollution, rather than other critical river management functions motivate prefecture-level cadres to deploy their organizational such as flood prevention, agricultural irrigation, riverside land use, ability and available resources to meet river quality performance shipping and transportation, public participation processes and so goals (Chien, 2016, p. p1; He et al., 2015). on. Second, Qiu's leadership played a crucial role in effectively implementing the river leader policy. Qiu's successors lacked his 3.3. Short-term success and long-term unsustainability charisma and perseverance, and the current administration in Kunming has paid less attention to river quality management, From 2009 to 2012, improvements to pollution interception resulting in backsliding (see Fig. 3 above). S.-S. Chien, D.-L. Hong / Political Geography 62 (2018) 58e67 65

Third, Qiu's aggressive schedule for environmental improve- ment resulted in the forced displacement of existing riverside and lakeside communities, triggering huge protests and raising allega- tions of corruption. These issues played a role in Qiu's being removed from his leadership position of Kunming in 2011 and then being indicted on and convicted of bribery charges in 2015.

4. Hierarchization through partification: characterstics and limitations

4.1. Transboundary topology of power behind partifed hierarchization

The strategy of hierarchization through partification has been applied to transboundary issues aside from for river governance. In 2016 China introduced a new system called ‘road leaders (lu zhang)’, that assigns prefecture-level local CCP standing committee members to maintain scenic vistas along major inter-city highways and roads that pass through different county-level administrative boundaries (Zhang, 2016).8 Road leaders focus less on transportation planning than on beautification through demolishing illegal construction, cleaning up garbage and sustaining green areas. Taking the road leaders and river leaders together, we identify at least three common factors that can be presented as characteristics of the strategy of hierarchization through partification. Fig. 4. Similar Structures of cadre authority and river flowS. First, there are a large number of lower-ranking cadres managed Source: Compiled by authors by a smaller group of higher-ranking superiors who are responsible for task implementation. Second, lower-ranking cadres are Politically, higher-ranked cadres can exercise authority across accountable for all affairs happening in their administrative juris- administrative boundaries within the CCP party state system. After dictions, and they are highly motivated by performance evaluations being assigned as river leaders, these higher-level cadres will use as career promotion mechanisms. Therefore, the policy imple- their authority and resources to coordinate their lower-level cadres mentation behavior of these lower-ranking cadres can be adjusted to manage pollution in the tributaries that flow into the main- by changing their performance indicators. Third, the higher- streams for which they are responsible, or in smaller subsections ranking cadres can exercise authority across the administrative that comprise the whole river. boundaries of their subordinate counterparts, thus local-ranking cadres are subject to control and coordination by their higher- ranking counterparts. 4.2. Scalar limitations of the river leader policy in China We further argue that the physical materiality of the river shares these three common characteristics, which can facilitate the Even though the river leader policy is effective in the single implementation of the river leader policy (see Fig. 4). First, topo- dimension of pollution improvement over the short term, we also logically speaking, a river assumes an inverted tree structure, with notice that the CCP has not introduced the policy to all rivers within many branches gradually merging into a single trunk. The entire China. While the central government in Beijing requires provincial river can be seen as an ensemble of different subsections, each governments to establish river leader systems for regional rivers belonging to a different administrative area in the river policy and lakes that cross prefecture-level and county-level administra- context. This topology is similar to the relationship between the tions within their provincial jurisdictions, there are no river leader numerous lower-ranking cadres and the fewer higher-ranking systems for major rivers that run across multiple provinces such as counterparts. the Yangtze River or the Yellow River. In addition, provinces have Second, the overall quality of the mainstream river depends on only introduced the river leader policy for rivers over 5 km in improvements to the tributaries, just as the overall performance of length and lakes whose areas exceed 10 km2, exempting small- the higher-ranked cadres relies on the joint efforts of the lower- scale local rivers and lakes. ranked cadres within the administration. Similarly, the whole In other words, empirically, the river leader policy is only river is comprised of different river subsections from upstream to applied to regional rivers that cross prefecture-level and county- downstream. The overall quality of the river (or the river leader's level administrations within provinces. By examining some vital overall performance) therefore depends on collective performance features of the hierarchization through partification, we provide of all tributaries (or all lower-level cadres). In other words, the river insight into why China has not applied the river leader policy to leader policy and the river system itself follow similar patterns in local rivers (within the same county) or national rivers (across terms of the flow directionality of power and accountability. different provinces). That is quite different from the strategy of Thirdly, we discuss transboundary power and flows. Rivers creating an ad hoc committee and establishing a new authority that physically run across many man-made administrative boundaries. are basically suitable to national or local rivers. First, small-scale local basins are usually confined to a single county-level administration. Mismatches between physical flow 8 Also news source: Ningpo ganxian gonglu shishi “luzhangzhi”, shiji lingdao and political boundaries are unlikely to occur and therefore there is danren 7 tiao gaosu gonglu “luzhang” [Ningbo asked 7 top leaders to be highway leaders ], Yidu [Read o1], 2016-05-13. https://read01.com/Jok00G.html, accessed by no need to produce a new hierarchy to deal with the governance of 2017/06/30. small-scale local rivers and lakes. 66 S.-S. Chien, D.-L. Hong / Political Geography 62 (2018) 58e67

Second, in China the national rivers run for thousands kilome- pollution issues, but less so for other comprehensive social and ters cross many provinces, creating certain complexity that frus- agricultural functions, and is more effective for short-term initia- trate the political arrangements of river leader policy. Take the tives than long-term efforts. In addition, one should be cautious not Yangtze River as an example. The 6300 km long Yangtze River runs to overgeneralize the applicability of the partified hierarchization across nine provinces and is managed by the Yangtze River strategy to various kinds of rivers in China. That strategy is basically Resource Commission under the Ministry of Water Resources. The appropriate for regional rivers across different prefecture-level and party secretaries of two of these provincial-level administrations county-level administrations but not for other local or national (Shanghai and Chongqing) are already members of CCP Politburo rivers. (at the vice-national rank), thus any potential river leader for the The case of Dian Lake shows the effectiveness of the river leader Yangtze would be a member of CCP Politburo standing committee policy relies on the strong local leadership. Without proper checks (PSC), who would have the highest national-level party rank/power and balances, or the participation of civil society and media at the to mobilize vice-national-level and provincial-level leaders local level, the river leader policy may better bring about temporary involved in the Yangtze River Basin. In addition, promotions or pollution control improvements but cause long-term social and demotions for a PSC member (the Yangtze River leader) and related political problems. Given the dependence of this approach on provincial leaders (Yangtze River subsection leaders) would be authoritarian methods, more policy research is urgently needed mainly determined on the basis of pollution control for the whole into the development of further appropriate institutional mecha- of the Yangtze River and its subsections in various provinces. nisms to cope with such unintended consequences. However, these two hypothetical political conditions for a po- In terms of theoretical implications, we integrate geography into tential Yangtze River Leader are not realistic in practice under CCP the literature on authoritarian environmentalism, which has political operations. At the beginning, PSC members hold the widely discussed the mechanisms and effectiveness of authori- highest political authority in China, and they can only be compelled tarian regimes like China in terms of environmental governance to step down when they reach a mandatory retirement age, thus (Eaton & Kostka, 2014; Gilley, 2012). While political and social they cannot be incentivized by further promotion or demotion. On process within a territorial context has been highlighted in the top of that, selection of leaders at the provincial-level is not con- existing literature on existing authoritarian environmentalism, ducted entirely on the basis of competition of performance (Lü further understanding is needed for how authoritarian power et al., 2014). The actual selection criteria and process for provin- structures can be adapted to produce transboundary power for cial leaders in China is highly opaque, but are undoubtedly subject managing flowing materials across different territories. Through to political considerations such as coalition-building and political explicating the hierarchization strategy, this paper supplements negotiation among individual leaders and their factions (Jia et al., the transboundary dimension to better understand operations of 2015; Li, 2012). Thus, quality of river pollution management authoritarian environmentalism regimes. would not be critical criteria for the promotion or demotion of provincial leaders. That scenario defeats the purpose of the strategy Acknowledgment of hierarchization through partification which seeks to strike a proper balance between performance targets and incentives. Given This paper is conducted with a grant from Ministry of Science the political complexity of assignments and evaluations for leaders and Technology (102-2410-H-002-131-MY3). And the authors at the national and provincial levels, the strategy of hierarchization appreciate critical comments from Political Geography reviewers through partification is not well-suited for governing national-scale and useful discussion with Chih-hung Wang, Chih-yu Shih, Yu-Shan river systems or lakes. This can explain why China sets the various Wu, Shumei Huang, Hsinyi Lu, and Liangchih Chen. committees under the Ministry of Water Resources to manage other national rivers (such as the Yellow River Water Resource References Commission and the Huai River Water Resource Commission). Blatter, J. (2004). 'From spaces of place' to 'spaces of Flows'? Territorial and func- 5. Conclusion tional governance in cross-border regions in Europe and North America. 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