4. Research questions

To achieve the purpose of the study, this paper tries to answer the following questions,

6. What are the PD, PAPs, PAAs, APs, Outputs, and Evaluative Statements of China’s policy of importing solid waste?

7. What kinds of dimensions can be used to evaluate China’s policy of importing solid waste?

3. How policy actors of China’s policy of importing solid waste employ resources under certain institutional rules so as to influence policy programming and policy implementation?

5. Data Collection and Methodology

To answer the above three questions, the author would firstly present an overall picture of China’s importation of solid waste, including the current situation of importation, the import regime, and the challenges posed by importation of solid waste, thus enabling readers to fully understand the background as well as the significance of China’s policy of importing solid waste. Then, to answer the first question, the author would like to employ the concepts proposed in Public Policy Analysis to systematically describe the six products of China’s policy of importing solid waste. Therefore, an operational analysis will be conducted for each policy product with the qualitative data collected from the texts of legislations, acts, regulations, announcements or rules. At the same time, the triangle of policy actors will also be formulated to help readers understand the causal hypothesis and intervention hypothesis of this policy. After analyzing the last policy product, that is, evaluative statements, the author tries to propose various dimensions for evaluating the policy and identify several other independent variables that should be excluded in evaluation so as to answer the second research question. Finally, when dealing with the last research question, the author tries to explore the games of policy actors at the stage of policy programming and policy implementation. The first example of China’s Association of Waste Plastics which represents the interests of target groups will be used to illustrate that, under certain institutional rules, how target groups employ resources to influence policy programming, Then, the second example of policy implementation at Luqiao District will be resorted to demonstrate that, under certain institutional rules, how different actors will employ their own resources to influence policy implementation. The data used to answer this question were obtained from semi-formal interviews conducted with relevant people and also from documentations.

Chapter II: China's Import Regime of Solid Waste

6. The overall description of solid waste imported by China

According to The Annual Report of Quality Inspection, and Quarantine of Imported Solid Waste of 2012 issued by General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine, in 2012, there are 3662 enterprises located in 21 provinces of China, importing more than 5.89 million of solid waste through more than 200 ports. The total value of imported solid waste reaches 36.594 billion dollars. The source of imported solid waste include 159 countries (regions), among which 14 countries and regions, including the United States, Japan export more than 1 million tons of solid waste to China mainland.

From the year of 2004 to 2012, China's imported volume of trade fluctuated with an overall increasing trend. The weight of imported solid waste reached a peak at 59 million tons in 2009, while the value of imported solid waste is highest at 40.6 billion dollars in 2012.

Figure IV: The trends of imported weight and value of solid waste from the year 2004 to 2012

Based on data provided by The Annual Report of Quality Inspection, and Quarantine of Imported Solid Waste of 2012

During this period, waste and scrap paper and paperboard, this type of waste, took up the largest percentage of all types of waste that China has imported from abroad, which is followed by metals and metal-alloy wastes; waste, parings and scrap of plastics; mixed waste metals. These are the main four types of solid waste China has imported from overseas.

Figure V: The percentage of various types of imported solid waste among the total imported solid waste

There are a total of 23 local customs which can provide the services of inspection and quarantine of solid waste. The import of solid waste is concentrated in coastal regions such as the provinces of Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shanghai. In particular, whether in terms of the number of batches, the weight or the value of imported solid waste, Guangdong is at first position among all the regions importing solid waste in China. There were about 83.7 thousand batches, and 13.4 million tons of solid waste with the total value of more than 10.91 billion dollars imported in Guangdong.

Table II: The statistics of quality inspection and quarantine of solid waste at local customs in 2012

No.	Local customs	Batches （thousand）	Weight （million tons）	Value (billion dollars)
1	Guangdon	83.7(1)	13.43(1)	10.9(1)
2	Jiangsu	14.5(8)	9.38(2)	2.75(6)
3	Ningbo	58.1(3)	5.809(3)	5.907(2)
4	Shenzhen	15(7)	5.2825(4)	1.099(8)
5	Shanghai	63.7(2)	4.9277(5)	3.633(3)
6	Zhejiang	18.1(6)	4.8235(6)	2.713(7)
7	Tianjin	52.1(4)	4.7397(7)	3.081(5)
8	Shandong	30.6(5)	4.5983(8)	3.607(4)
9	Fujian	12.2(9)	1.3142(9)	6.64(10)
10	Xiamen	7.9(10)	1.2806(10)	5.11(12)
11	Guangxi	3(12)	0.9129(11)	6.74(9)
12	Liaoning	5.8(11)	0.7976(12)	5.51(11)
13	Anhui	2.4(13)	0.6621(13)	1.43(13)
14	Chongqing	1.4(14)	0.6089(14)	1.30(15)
15	Hunan	0.6(16)	0.1433(15)	0.33(16)
16	Jiangxi	0.6(17)	0.0577(16)	1.32(14)
17	Xinjiang	1(15)	0.0540(17)	0.18(17)
18	Hubei	0.1(20)	0.0364(18)	0.08(19)
19	Hebei	0.03(22)	0.0345(19)	0.08(18)
20	Neimenggu	0.5(18)	0.0179(20)	0.07(20)
21	Heilongjiang	0.1(19)	0.0066(21)	0.01(22)
22	Jilin	0.03(21)	0.0015(22)	0.004(23)
23	Zhuhai	0.01(23)	0.0012(23)	0.021(21)

Note: The ranking is the number in the quote.

Source: The Annual Report of Quality Inspection, and Quarantine of Imported Solid Waste of 2012

In 2012, China imported solid waste from 159 countries and regions. The main exporters of solid waste to China are developed countries, among which the United States is the biggest one, outputting 21.83 per cent of the world's export of solid waste to China in 2012. It should be noted that the emerging countries in Latin America, Africa, South Asia are also exporting more and more solid waste to China. There were 14 countries and regions exporting more than 1 million tons of solid waste to China in 2012. In 2012, these 14 countries and regions exported 303.8 batches, 50.5 million tons and 29.917 billion dollars of solid waste to China mainland, respectively taking up 81.54%, 85.7% and 81.75% of the world's total export of solid waste to China.

Table III: The world's main exporters of solid waste to China in 2012

Country /region	Batches	Weight （million tons）	Value （million dollars）	The percentage of the total batches	The percentage of the total weight	The percentage of the total value
The United States	104964	16.7047	7987.28	28.26%	28.35%	21.83%
Japan	36756	9.84	5213.94	9.90%	16.70%	14.25%
China Hongkong	39192	4.1336	5054.43	10.55%	7.01%	13.81%
The United Kingdom	18061	3.8049	1743.26	4.86%	6.46%	4.76%
Netherlands	9497	2.3594	1264.47	2.56%	4%	3.45%
Germany	21085	2.1352	2131.25	5.68%	3.62%	5.82%
Canada	20581	2.1697	1103.67	5.54%	3.68%	3.02%
Australia	12564	1.9281	1401.18	3.38%	3.27%	3.83%
India	1089	1.4291	256.18	0.29%	2.43%	0.70%
Italy	4791	1.3319	538.45	1.29%	2.26%	1.47%
France	10121	1.3167	960.41	2.73%	2.23%	2.62%
Spain	11763	1.2326	1141.58	3.17%	2.09%	3.12%
South Korea	5843	1.0791	635.24	1.57%	1.83%	1.74%
Belgium	6518	1.0363	485.62	1.76%	1.76%	1.33%
Others	68561	8.4257	6677.29	18.46%	14.30%	18.25%
The total	371386	58.9272	36594.25	100%	100%	100%

(Source: The Annual Report of Quality Inspection, and Quarantine of Imported Solid Waste of 2012)