Abstract: The most striking change in the Atmospheric Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People’s Republic of China (2015 Revision) is the emergent new mode of regional prevention and control of air pollution， i.e.， shifting from the traditional administrative mode to the mode of joint prevention and control of air pollution. The new mode， which emphasizes the coordination of regional governance， centers on the liability mechanism of joint governance. However， there is no fundamental improvement with the new mode over the past two years. Due to the unbalanced levels of regional economic development， it requires the redistribution of the environmental responsibility of the administrative body so as to make the economic interests match the responsibility of environmental governance. Subjected to the regional governance barriers and other defects， the existing mechanism is still biased in the traditional mode. Given that the mode of joint prevention and control is not likely to be implemented， the good experiences from American environmental governance should be learned， the legislation should be perfected to balance the liability mechanism， and a mature legal liability path should be taken in China’s regional air pollution control.

Key words: regional air pollution control, joint prevention and control, legal liability, balanced liability mechanism