Abstract:

China's counterpart support policy is a national governance approach with unique Chinese characteristics， which has demonstrated significant value in disaster response by enabling the directional flow and optimal allocation of emergency resources （including funds， equipment， and personnel） across affected regions through central government-led strategic planning and paired assistance mechanisms. This facilitates effective disaster mitigation and rapid economic recovery in recipient areas. However， theoretical research on emergency paired assistance lags behind practical applications， creating an academic motivation for this study.Taking a major public health emergency as the background， a multi-periods mixed integer nonlinear programming （MINLP） model for emergency paired assistance considering production capacity constraints is developed in this paper. The proposed model is subsequently transformed into an equivalent linear formulation for solvability. Distinct from existing studies， the contributions include： （1） an innovative composite matching function integrating three dimensions—demand fulfillment rate， task equity， and regional connectivity—to evaluate pairwise coordination between donor and recipient regions； （2） a production capacity-constrained multi-period MINLP model grounded in assignment theory， offering a novel perspective for establishing emergency assistance relationships； and （3） a versatile decision framework adaptable to human， material， and financial resource management， with potential applications extending beyond public health crises to earthquake relief， poverty alleviation programs， and other paired assistance scenarios.Computational experiments reveal that high-demand disaster zones exhibit greater sensitivity to resource matching efficiency， while low-demand zones allow synergistic optimization of resource allocation and regional connectivity. Human resources are found to be sufficiently available under China’s nationwide emergency mobilization system， whereas medical equipment and emergency consumables achieve near-100% utilization rates， indicating acute resource scarcity that necessitates accelerated production. Notably， relaxing production capacity constraints for emergency consumables yielded more pronounced improvements in composite matching performance compared to medical equipment.Managerial implications derived include　（1） For high-demand disaster zones， “many-to-one” assistance models may outperform traditional “one-to-one” pairings in addressing multidimensional needs； （2） Emergency budgets and production capacity constraints demonstrate diminishing marginal returns on demand fulfillment， advocating for balanced resource allocation to avoid waste； and （3） Emergency resource security strategies should integrate emergency production and inventory management， with supply plans tailored to resource characteristics and demand dynamics for rapid crisis response.

Key words: major public health emergency, emergency management, counterpart assistance, comprehensive matching degree