This special issue marks the second instalment of our thematic focus on China’s political economy under Xi Jinping. In our previous issue (JEP 4-2019), we pointed out that Xi’s ascendance to become General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 2012 and 2013 respectively, has been widely interpreted as a major turning point in China’s recent history. Such an interpretation in terms of a significant caesura has gained further prominence both within and outside of China, after the CCP had proclaimed the beginning of a ‘new era’ in 2017. With a view to assessing this trope of rupture and to contribute to a critical understanding of China’s current political economic challenges, the articles in this special issue offer a re-interpretation of China’s development model, as well as two in-depth studies on the characteristics of environmental governance under the Xi administration.