While conversations about China’s environmental challenges are often dominated by coal, the culprit for the endless smoggy days in cities across the country, progress in cleaning the air cannot be achieved without greater attention to resource interdependencies from an integrated water-energy-food lens. Susuan Chan Shifflett outlines sustainable policy development that is particularly promising for Sino-U.S. collaboration.

The South-North Water Transfer Project represents an impressive feat in human engineering to bring between 4 and 20 percent of Yangzi river water to the water-scarce North China. However, as Britt Crow-Miller warns, the “band aid” solution could have lasting negative effects for South China communities in years to come.