Abstract: In terms of the governance structure of the Yellow River Basin, there were the problems of single function and insufficient coordination until the Yellow River National Strategy came out, resulting in a change of the governance structure and a promotion of a series of cross-boundary collaborative governance. In order to reveal the mechanism between governance structure remodeling and cross-boundary collaboration, this research introduces the concept of policy regime as an observation carrier, combines the perspective of policy regime with the structure-process paradigm, builds an analytical framework for cross-boundary collaborative governance, and analyzes the strategies of action subjects to improve collaborative governance after the unveiling of the Yellow River national strategy. It is found that under the dual role of central high-level promotion and economic incentive, local governments actively respond to central strategic planning and seek cross-boundary collaborative governance to improve organizational functions. The Yellow River governance policy system is thus inspired and consolidated; through a shift of the focus, working ideas and organizational structure, collaborative practices such as watershed ecological compensation mechanism and cooperative alliance have been carried out, realizing the restructuring of organizational relations and functions, at length forming a more stable and reasonable governance structure, which has further strengthened the cross-boundary synergy effect.

Key words: policy regime perspective, structure-process paradigm, cross-boundary governance, the Yellow River National Strategy