COVID-19 and the Emergency Response System in China

The outbreak of COVID-19 has tested  government emergency response worldwide, as well as brought legal challenges to the regulation of government powers during exceptional times. This presentation is centred after the case of the mainland China. Reviewing the timeline of the combat against the COVID-19, Ms Yuxue Fang will explain the China’s emergency response system with two dimensions focused. The law-policy dimension explains the role of the legislative framework relative to policy documents in regulating government powers for emergency response. The central-local dimension seeks to expound the power dynamics in the multi-levelled government structure. Overall, crude legislative mandates, the centralised strategic decision-making and effective grass-root level implementation, whilst contributing to the performance of government response to the COVID-19, have also posed several challenges.

Ms Yuxue Fang is a DPhil student in Law at Keble College, Oxford.  She holds degrees of MPhil and MJur (Oxford), MSc in Global China Studies (Hong Kong) and LLB (Shandong). She is interested in Chinese law, public law and legal theories in general.