Quality Infrastructure for China's Circular Economy: Standards and Knowledge Practices in the Green Transition

This book analyzes the evolution of circular economy in China focusing specifically on the role of quality infrastructure (QI) in this process.

QI refers to a system of knowledge, practices, and technologies that forms the basis for the operations of economies and societies, ensures safety and quality, and disseminates new knowledge that can be effective for the transition to a circular economy. Based on the analysis of a large number of Chinese and Western sources ranging from policy to legal and technical documents, the book traces the evolution of circular economy policies in China and its integration with green and low-carbon policies. It provides ample evidence for the role of QI and its elements, which are standardization, conformity assessment (testing, inspection, and certification), market surveillance, and others, as important components of China’s economic and technological policy toward a green transition.

The book will be of great interest to students and scholars from the fields of economics, political and social science, environmental and legal studies. It will also be useful for development specialists interested in China’s green transition and the functions of QI in this context.

Reinhard Weissinger has been Senior Expert, Research and Education, at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Geneva, Switzerland. He has also worked as an external professor at the University of Geneva teaching on the relationship between standardization, social regulation, and sustainability. He has been engaged in research, teaching, and consultancy related to various aspects of standardization for many years. His research priorities have been standardization and quality infrastructure in China, service standardization, studies on the impact of standards, national standardization strategies in support of socio-economic development as well as circular economy. He holds a master’s degree in Chinese studies and linguistics from the University of Tübingen, Germany, an executive MBA from the European University, Geneva, and a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Geneva, Switzerland.