The Chinese central government has recognized that village–government networks are promising for the sustainable development of rural villages. Though many local governments tend to deploy various hands-on or hand-off governance tools to influence the sustainable development of village-governance networks, the number of villages successfully achieving “good governance” is still rare. Therefore, this study empirically elaborates on the application of three classic tools of governance networks, analyzing how leaders of local government and village communities influence the effectiveness of these tools. The data were collected by snowball interviews, careful observations, and documentary analysis in Xiaonan village, a representatively successful case of rural-village governance networks in China. We detected that governance tools are often inadequately used and under-development in Chinese rural-village governance networks, accompanying a strong interaction between the effectiveness of tools and leadership. Excellent leadership is necessary for a successful rural-village governance network and its scaling-up.

Despite the global expansion of water markets, their resilience has received little scholarly attention, even though they are vulnerable to external and internal disturbances. Since the 1990s, the water market has been actively promoted by China as an important institutional coordination mechanism for efficient water use. This article examines what contextual factors, in configurations, contribute to the resilience of water markets in China. We distinguish between resilient and factitious water markets as two outcome variables and distil four conditions from market environmentalism to explain the variance in their outcomes: ownership of water entitlements, market intermediaries, water pricing, and spot/forward trade categories. Using crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (csQCA), we analyzed seven resilient and three factitious water markets in China. Our findings show that a water market’s framework is multidimensional and complex and that no necessary conditions contribute to resilience. Two sufficient solutions display the configurational complexity of water markets’ resilience. Path 1 includes strong intermediary, uncompetitive price, and forward water trade. Path 2 includes privatization of water entitlements, spot contracts, and competitive pricing. Weak intermediary together with forward water trade determines factitious water markets. The QCA results reveal that there exist multiple paths that a resilient water market can follow and develop. Therefore, policymakers must be cautious about pushing for water market indiscriminately, especially by over-privatization and unlimited investment in water banks.

On the basis of studying the connotation of Rural Revitalization Strategy, the dilemma of talent training and development, and the orientation of new agricultural talent training, this paper discusses how to train new agricultural talents in local agricultural colleges and universities. Through literature review, investigation and analysis, the author believes that the core idea of new agricultural talent training is to cultivate new agricultural talents with modern university concept and innovative features. The path of new agricultural talent training is to promote discipline integration, consolidate the knowledge structure of “thick foundation and wide caliber”, guide cooperation and exchange, and build a practice platform of “strong practice and innovation”, we will strengthen social services and implement a testing mechanism of “wide adaptation and high quality”.

This article explains variations in the strategies Chinese local governments apply to address protests against the planning, construction, or operation of paraxylene (PX) plants. We present an analytical framework that identifies government strategies and explanatory conditions. Using a most-similar-system design (MSSD), we compared government strategies adopted by three city governments – Dalian, Xiamen and Kunming – in coping with these protests. In response to PX protests, the Kunming and Dalian municipality continued construction or operation of the PX plant; in contrast, the Xiamen municipality relocated the plant. Our comparative analysis showed that the preference of higher level governments and national mass media, as well as perceived costs, are key conditions explaining these differences. Overall, we conclude that Chinese local governments, due to contradictory pressures and lock-ins, have little room to respond to citizens’ concerns during protests. In our conclusion, we compared our findings with those of an earlier application of QCA on a broader set of cases, including those analyzed here, to validate our findings and clarify the added value of MSSD.