Mining violations, rent-seeking, and resource governance in China: Evidence from central environmental protection inspection

In China, many laws governing resource extraction have been loosely enforced due to a lack of local legitimacy attributable to stakeholders' conflicting interests. Such nonenforcement has had severe environmental impacts and affected the livelihoods of local communities and ecosystems. The central environmental protection in-spection has brought about changes to resource governance. By examining 368 mining-related instances, and cases of illegal coal mining in the Qilian Mountains and sand mining, this study demonstrates that new trends have appeared in contemporary resource governance, including a demand for government accountability in environmental damage and a change from nonenforcement to strict enforcement of the law. These changes reflect a move towards centralised resource governance. This has significant implications for resource and environmental governance in China.