Why was apparent evidence ignored? The delayed relaxation of China's birth control

Abstract

The ideal of evidence-based policy making (EBPM) may be hindered by delayed policy response to disclosed evidence. This article adopts Allison's three-lens decisionmaking framework to highlight technical, organizational, and political causes of delayed policy responses to apparent evidence. The study uses China's birth control policy as a case to examine the lag of policy adjustments. Although ample supply of evidence suggested earlier relaxation of China's one-child policy, major adjustments only happened after 2013 and failed to achieve significant results. The study indicates that a politics-informed EBPM approach may better position the role of evidence in policy processes by taking into consideration the unavoidable influences of institutions and politics. K E Y W O R D Sbirth control, china, evidence-based policy making, institutions, policy delay, politics 208

Seeking opportunities from crisis? China’s governance responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Many experiences of the 2003 SARS epidemic were copied. Respect for scientists and experts was high due to the decades-long promotion of "scientific policymaking" (Jing and Hu, 2020). This provided decisive, real-time, and precise interventions into the many complex, intertwined, and dynamic issues happening in all phases of pandemic control and all aspects of life.…”