Governing Food Safety in China

This book analyzes China’s food safety co-governance with Chinese characteristics through the Asymmetric Party-State-Society (PSS) Triangle Structure, combining theoretical analysis with sixty-seven interviews conducted between 2018 and 2024. It traces how this framework took shape and matured from the 2008 melamine scandal to the present.

The framework positions the Communist Party at the apex, providing strategic direction; the government at the base, translating directives into enforceable standards and enforcement; and society at the pivot, participating within state-defined boundaries. It develops the concept of structured asymmetry, demonstrating how hierarchical authority and functional collaboration can coexist. This challenges the assumption in Western collaborative governance theory that effective governance requires dispersed power and voluntary participation. It places China alongside the United States and the European Union, assesses the strengths and limitations of each model, and examines China’s growing influence in international standard-setting bodies, including the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The book further considers the future of PSS co-governance as digital technologies and global supply chain pressures reshape the institutional boundaries of the triangle structure.

The book will appeal to scholars and practitioners working in food safety law and policy, Chinese politics and governance, comparative public administration, and regulatory theory.