Theories that explain the governance of water, such as integrated river basin management and multilevel water governance, point to scalar configurations of power as critical determinants of success (or failure). This article explains how the scalar configurations of power in water governance mirror those of the Chinese State, and influence water governance in powerful ways. We use the case of the Yangtze River and Shanghai, a megacity in the Yangtze estuary, as examples, showing how a local jurisdiction exercises its regulatory measures against different types of transjurisdictional water pollution and how these regulatory measures mirror the fluidity (or rigidity) of power configurations in hydropolitics in China. China's evolving water resource management institutions are as yet unable to address the scalar configurations of power in water governance.