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Responding to China's major environmental challenges, researchers are increasingly exploring dynamics between international non-governmental organisations, the nation-state, and local communities. Much less understood are domestic environmental non-governmental organisations (eNGOs) and their interactions with actors across scales. This paper responds by exploring domestic eNGOs and interactions with institutional actors, including international donors, and with levels of Chinese government. The practices of eNGOs in China are influenced by interactions at various scales. Rather than being directly influenced by international partners and simply constrained by state regulations, Chinese eNGOs are embedded in more complex power relations. These interrelationships are exemplified in the operations of Green Watershed, a domestic eNGO working in Yunnan Province. Green Watershed has extensive interactions with international donors and various levels of government as a result of its national campaign and long-term local projects. Relationships between eNGOs’ international donors and the Chinese government are significant in influencing eNGO practice. NGO–government relations in China are inconsistent and constantly changing owing to the diverse interests and priorities of the various levels of government. The impacts of the local practice of Chinese eNGOs are deeply informed by their relationships both at and beyond the local level. Complex interrelationships make it difficult to achieve bottom-up, participatory resource management in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we use archaeometallurgical data from the Yunnanese Bronze Age sites of Hebosuo and Shangxihi, to examine the nature of early exchange networks within Yunnan, across southern China and into Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA). Traditional perspectives on relations between China and MSEA were viewed from a Core-Periphery (C–P) perspective, derived from World Systems Theory (WST) but this area, though now divided by national borders, has shared ecological and cultural characteristics that allow its definition as the Southeast Asian Massif (SAM). The fourteen analysed samples were all unleaded copper or bronze, mostly as-cast and with some annealing. Their lead isotope signatures did not group at site level but showed broad consistency with the other, limited, signatures available from Yunnan, Sichuan and Guangxi. Critically, comparison with MSEA signatures revealed good isotopic consistency with key Bronze Age sites in Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam, active within tight timeframes, and mostly lying on or near the path of major river systems that find their source in or via Yunnan. The picture we propose, based on current data, is one of a complex network of autochthonous SAM societies interacting at short (ca. 50 km), medium (ca. 300 km) and long (ca. 800–1600 km) ranges over mountainous and forested terrain. • Yunnan and Mainland Southeast Asia have recently aligned Bronze Age chronologies. • 14 copper-base artefacts from early 1st mill. BC Hebosuo and Shangxihi were analysed. • 8 were unleaded copper and 6 were unleaded copper.11 as-cast, 2 annealed & 1 corroded. • Lead isotope ratios did not cluster intrasite but were consistent with southern China. • Consistency with selected Mainland Southeast Asian signatures suggests radial network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the recent changes in China's Mekong River policy and investigates the contributing factors. In the past few years, China has shifted from an upstream sovereignty stance to launch a multilateral transboundary water diplomacy initiative in the Mekong River basin through the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism. We conclude that China's adoption of water diplomacy in the Mekong River is partially attributable to international activism by the Yunnan provincial government and its associated actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]