Environmental Politics, one of the top political science journals, has published “Tainted Trust: Air Pollution and Political Trust in China,” a study co-authored by Drs. Xinsheng Liu (ISTPP Senior Research Scholar and Research Scientist), Youlang Zhang (ISTPP Research Follow and Professor at Renmin University of China), Taiping Ding (Postdoctoral Researcher Sun Yat-sen University and former ISTPP visiting pre-doctoral scholar), and Arnold Vedlitz (ISTPP Director).
The authors examine how air pollution may affect the political trust of Chinese citizens in their government. From an expectation-performance perspective, they argue that air pollution leads Chinese citizens to feel that their basic needs and well-being are inadequately protected by the government, thereby diminishing their political trust. Empirically, the authors employ a unique dataset (n=3,972) that merges national public opinion survey with satellite-derived ground-level air pollution data to test their argument. Data analyses show that worsening air pollution significantly undermines Chinese citizens’ trust in the government, while the absolute level of local air pollution also erodes their political trust through raised environmental concern and lowered policy satisfaction. This research contributes to the understanding of the links between air pollution and political trust in China and provides new insights for future studies of environmental politics and governance elsewhere.
Liu, Xinsheng, Taiping Ding, Youlang Zhang, and Arnold Vedlitz. 2024. “Tainted Trust: Air Pollution and Political Trust in China,” Environmental Politics, 1-21.
