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Effective environmental governance in China is crucial for promoting global environmental governance initiatives. The government's environmental regulatory capacity (GERC) is a core metric reflecting the effectiveness of China's environmental governance. This paper aims to investigate the strength of China's GERC and empirically verify its impact on the coupling coordinated development of the economy-environment (CEE). We use a multiple indicators and multiple causes model (MIMIC) to measure the governmental environmental regulation capabilities of 30 provinces in China, from 2007 to 2018. Then, the econometric model is used to test the impact of the GERC on CEE. The results show that, although the GERC exhibits an overall upward trend, it is still at a low level for most regions. The GERC in different regions of China exhibits a certain gradient effect, with a weak polarization trend. The increase in the GERC of regions with high levels of economic development is significantly faster than that in regions with low levels of economic development. Moreover, the improvement in the GERC has not promoted coordinated development between the economy and the environment, which means that there is still a mutual "crowding out effect" between economic development and environmental protection in China. [Display omitted] • The Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes model is used to measure government environmental regulation capability (GERC). • Although the GERC shows an overall upward trend, it is still at a low level for most regions. • The GERC in different regions has a certain gradient effect, showing a weak polarization trend. • There is still a mutual "crowding out effect" between economic development and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]