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Over the past decades, the automotive sector in China has been characterized by the obligation of foreign manufacturers to enter joint ventures, transfer technologies, and localize production. Still, the Chinese automotive industry has remained dependent on foreign brands, capital, and technology. The advent of markets and supply chains for electric vehicles, however, changes the framework conditions for established foreign automotive firms in terms of competitive landscape and access to core technology components. This is mainly the result of political initiatives: Established automotive manufacturers are exposed to direct and indirect restrictions that influence their production of electric vehicles, their choice of suppliers, and their potential market shares in the future. This paper outlines multilevel bargaining processes of Chinese and foreign actors as they aim to maximize value capture in a fundamentally transitioning automotive sector. In contrast to the lead firm‐centric focus of recent global production networks (GPN)‐discussions, this paper argues that the determinants of how production networks evolve is first and foremost a question of the institutional environment. Focusing on power balances between state and firm actors in multilevel bargaining processes offers a way of explaining GPN‐evolution in institutional contexts in which power concentrates in executive bodies and decision‐making processes are often informal.

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Harmful and sudden events trigger intense media coverage which in turn can elevate public interest in a problem within an instant. A period of heavy air pollution in Beijing in January 2013 may have been such a case. This sudden and intense period of air pollution featured historically high levels of fine particulate concentrations and was assumed by observers to be a trigger for shifting public perception and increased pressure for policy adjustment. This study examines whether this period of severe air pollution indeed triggered increased public scrutiny, following which the influential factors behind this development are outlined. In this context, a focus is given to the interplay of air quality, media reporting and public discussion in shaping sustained public interest. Based on a timeline analysis and survey data, it is argued that the combination of historically high air pollution with intense media reporting did lead to higher public attention to the topic.

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