Capabilities and Challenges of Local Governments in Responding to Emergencies

China is now facing social structure transformation and social structure upgrading, more and more social problems are becoming more and more prominent, so there are more and more public emergencies, and the demand for the government's governance capacity is also higher and higher, and the importance of the local government's ability to cope with emergencies should not be ignored. Emergencies, such as traffic accidents, public health, extreme weather events, etc., often bring huge property losses and casualties to the society, seriously affecting economic development and social security. Under such circumstances, local governments, as the most direct and grass-roots government units, their ability to respond to emergencies is directly related to the control of disasters, the efficiency of rescue and the speed of post-disaster recovery. The study of local government's ability to respond to public emergencies is of great significance in enhancing the credibility of the government and maintaining social harmony and stability. In order to better improve the response capacity of local governments in dealing with public emergencies, this article starts from the theories of public management, and discusses the causes, mechanisms and effects of public emergencies in depth. In addition, the article also points out some challenges faced by local governments in coping with emergencies. Firstly, the early warning mechanism is imperfect, which makes local governments unable to predict and prevent the occurrence of similar events in advance. Secondly, there are insufficient rescue resources, especially in large-scale emergencies, and local governments need more rescue forces and resources to cope with them. Moreover, the lack of public participation is also a problem, which requires local governments to strengthen publicity, education and mobilization to improve the public's awareness of emergency response and self-rescue and mutual-rescue capabilities. Through the in-depth analysis of the collapse of the Jiamusi City Gymnasium, this paper points out the shortcomings of the local government in dealing with public emergencies, so as to provide new ideas for the local government governance, in order to better enhance the government's governance capacity and credibility, and to build a harmonious and stable social environment.