Lei Xie
Lei Xie's research focuses on environmental governance and sustainability, with particular interest in water diplomacy and water security policies in Southern countries. Lei leads China Water Governance Program at Institute of Governance, SDU, member of Universities Partnership for Water Cooperation and Diplomacy (UPWCD), which is based at University of Geveva. Lei has been invited to lecture in UNEP organized capacity building course on climate change related water issues to diplomats.
Biography
Lei Xie received her PhD from Wageningen University. She also holds a MPhil from the Chinese University of HK and BA in Politics and Economics (double major) from Peking University.Before joining Shandong University, she lectured in Politics at University of Exeter as Assistant Professor and was a visiting scholar at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the China Institute of International Studies, Shanghai. She is author of Environmental Activism in China (Routledge, 2009).
Education
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Chinese University of Hong Kong
Wageningen University, the Netherlands
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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Lei Xie's research focuses on global environmental governance and transnational environmental movement with particular interest on the international cooperation of transbondary river basins. She has developed inter-disciplinary research on subjects of politics, international relations as well as geography and environmental management. Her interests in area studies of India and Kazakhstan as well as China studies.
Personal Interests
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In her spare time, Lei loves sports, e.g. cycling and tennis. She also enjoys performing Chinese calligraphy.
Websites
Books
Articles
Urban environmentalism and activists’ networks in China: the cases of Hubei and Shanghai
Published: Aug 14, 2019 by Conservation and Society
Authors: Lei Xie and Peter Ho
Subjects:
Sociology, Area Studies
Despite China's repressive environment, the public, organised by ENGOs, are represented in local environmental governance; their voices are articulated and policy-making is affected. Empirical findings from ENGOs demonstrate that environmental activism is not an activity with a fair degree of autonomy and self-regulation, but occupies a social space that is enmeshed in a web of interpersonal relations and informal/formal rules between political and social actors.
Will China and India Wage War Over Water?
Published: May 16, 2019 by China-India Brief No. 138, National Singapore University
Authors: Lei Xie
Subjects:
Area Studies
China and India are respectively located on the upstream and midstream of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers. Both countries have taken to using these shared water resources at different levels of intensity. The friction arising from their water sharing dispute has not received much attention. Nevertheless, both nations’ approaches to securitizing their shared water resources make this issue a time-bomb for Sino-India relations.
Dilemmatic Resource Governance: China’s Balancing Act to Share Rivers
Published: Apr 14, 2019 by China and the World
Authors: Lei Xie
Subjects:
Political Science, Area Studies, Environment and Sustainability
This paper examines a dilemmatic situation that great powers are faced with the participation in international environmental cooperation. Changes occur in China’s international water policy including the establishment of the multi-lateral mechanism. This paper concludes that China’s policy developments in resource governance facilitate China to promote coordinated actions over the shared water resources. Such balancing acts serve to legitimize China’s dominance over the Mekong river basin.
Can China lead in multilateral environmental negotiations? Internal politics, self-depiction, and China’s contribution in climate change regime and Mekong governance
Published: Feb 19, 2019 by Eurasian Geography and Economics
Authors: Wei Shen and Lei Xie
Subjects:
Geography , Sociology & Social Policy, Area Studies, Environment and Sustainability
The impacts of China’s intensified efforts to engage in regional and global environmental governance is widely noted and debated. In this paper, we examine two cases of multinational environmental negotiations, where China exhibited leadership potential. We argue that China exhibited both determination and commitment to shape the course and outcome of the negotiations, whilst applying two clearly different strategies.
Food safety, agro industries, and China’s international trade: A standard-based approach
Published: Jun 27, 2018 by China Information
Authors: Louis Augustin-Jean and Lei Xie
Subjects:
Sociology, Environment and Agriculture
This article argues that China has assumed a more proactive role in reframing international standards of agro-food markets in general and food safety in particular, despite existing problems in its domestic food markets. China is using different strategies and methods to redesign the shape of international trade.
China’s water policy and the sharing of international rivers in Asia
Published: Mar 21, 2018 by Global water forum
Authors: Lei Xie and Shaofeng Jia
Subjects:
Political Science, Area Studies
One of the critical determinants of Asia’s future is the sustainable management of transboundary water resources to guarantee water security for growing populations under a changing climate. As an upstream state, China’s international water policy is at the core of Asia’s water security. Two leading Chinese water experts, Prof. Jia Shaofeng and Dr. Lei Xie, spoke with GWF about their new book and China’s water policy.
Kazakhstan focusses on water efficiency to ease water tensions with China
Published: Feb 17, 2018 by China dialogue
Authors: Lei Xie and Shaofeng Jia
Subjects:
Political Science, Area Studies
Policymakers in Kazakhstan shift focus to domestic water saving measures to reduce reliance on river water flowing from China
The political economy for low-carbon energy transition in China: towards a new policy paradigm
Published: Sep 14, 2017 by New Political Economy
Authors: Wei Shen and Lei Xie
Subjects:
Political Science, Area Studies, Environment and Sustainability
By presenting the institutional arrangement and interest constellations of China’s regulatory system of renewable energy sectors, this paper argues that the reasons for China’s swift expansion of wind and solar energy investment go beyond the notion of a state-led model. A new policy paradigm is emerging that is largely different from the previous decades of policy orientation that centred on capacity expansion and instrumental interests for renewable energy development.
Mismatched diplomacy: China-India water relations over the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basin
Published: Aug 21, 2017 by Journal of Contemporary China
Authors: Lei Xie, Yanbing Zhang and Jagannath Panda
Subjects:
Area Studies, Environment and Sustainability
This article sheds light on the nature, forms and outcomes of China’s diplomacy over transboundary water resources. Water diplomacy bears unique and complex features and approaches for forming cooperative partnerships in the contextual settings where it is developed. By surveying the development and effectiveness of water diplomacy, it argues that water diplomacy is unlikely to succeed in conditions where power relations are unstable, or among countries experiencing low economic growth.
When Do Institutions Work? A Comparison of Two Water Disputes Over the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers Basins submitted to Water Policy
Published: Aug 15, 2017 by Water Policy
Authors: Lei Xie, We Shen and Muhammad Rahaman
Subjects:
Political Science, Geography , Environment and Sustainability
This article aims to identify links between the formation of water management institutions (WMIs) and the outcomes of such institutional cooperation. It concludes that in the context of the global South, where foreign relations are unstable and countries’ reliance on river basins varied, building trust and balancing interests over water management are especially important to the formation of effective institutional arrangements.
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