International Aid and China’s Environment Rapid economic growth in the world’s most populous nation is leading to widespread soil erosion, desertification, deforestation and the depletion of vital natural resources. The scale and severity of environmental problems in China now threaten the economic and social foundations of its modernization. International Aid and China’s Environment analyses the relationship between international and local responses to environmental pollution problems in China. The book challenges the prevailing wisdom that weak compliance is the only constraint upon effective environmental management in China. It makes two contributions. First, it constructs a conceptual framework for understanding the key dimensions of environmental capacity. This is broadly defined to encompass the financial, institutional, technological and social aspects of environmental management. Second, the book details the implementation of donor-funded environmental projects in both China’s poorer and relatively developed regions. Drawing upon extensive fieldwork, it seeks to explain how, and under what conditions, international donors can strengthen China’s environmental capacity, especially at the local level. It will be of interest to those studying Chinese politics, environmental studies and international relations. Katherine Morton is a Fellow in the Department of International Relations, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the ANU in Australia. Routledge Studies on China in Transition Series Editor: David S. G. Goodman 1 The Democratisation of 8 China’s Spatial Economic China Development Baogang He Regional transformation in the lower Yangzi delta 2 Beyond Beijing Andrew M. Marton Dali Yang 9 Regional Development in 3 China’s Enterprise Reform China Changing state/society relations States, globalization and after Mao inequality You Ji Yehua Dennis Wei 4 Industrial Change in China 10 Grassroots Charisma Economic restructuring and Four local leaders in China conflicting interests Stephan Feuchtwang and Kate Hannan Wang Mingming 5 The Entrepreneurial State in 11 The Chinese Legal System China Globalization and local legal Real estate and commerce culture departments in reform era Pitman B. Potter Tianjin Jane Duckett 12 Transforming Rural China How local institutions shape 6 Tourism and Modernity in property rights in China China Chi-Jou Jay Chen Tim Oakes 13 Negotiating Ethnicity in 7 Cities in Post Mao China China Recipes for economic Citizenship as a response to development in the reform era the state Jae Ho Chung Chih-yu Shih 14 Manager Empowerment in 20 China’s Rational Entrepreneurs China The development of the new Political implications of rural private business sector industrialisation in the reform era Barbara Krug Ray Yep 21 China’s Scientific Elite 15 Cultural Nationalism in Cong Cao Contemporary China The search for national identity 22 Locating China under reform Space, place, and popular culture Yingjie Guo Jing Wang 16 Elite Dualism and Leadership 23 State and Laid-Off Workers Selection in China in Reform China Xiaowei Zang The silence and collective action of the retrenched 17 Chinese Intellectuals Between Yongshun Cai State and Market Edward Gu and Merle Goldman 24 Translocal China Linkages, identities and the 18 China, Sex and Prostitution reimagining of space Elaine Jeffreys Tim Oakes and Louisa Schein 19 The Development of China’s Stockmarket, 1984–2002 25 International Aid and China’s Equity politics and market Environment institutions Taming the Yellow Dragon Stephen Green Katherine Morton International Aid and China’s Environment Taming the Yellow Dragon Katherine Morton I~ ~?io~;~~n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2005 by Routledge Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2005 Katherine Morton Typeset in Times New Roman by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd, Chennai, India The Open Access version of this book, available at www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 978-0-415-37820-8 (hbk) Contents List of illustrations viii Preface x List of abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 1 Developing environmental capacity 13 2 The long march towards environmental management in China 27 3 Engineering a solution: the Japanese approach 51 4 Managing the environment with a human face: the UNDP approach 85 5 Creating incentives and institutions: the World Bank approach 120 6 The promises and pitfalls of international environmental aid to China 158 Conclusion 179 Epilogue: can lessons be learned? 187 Glossary of Chinese terms 190 Notes 192 Bibliography 230 Index 246 Illustrations Photographs 1 Living on the banks of the polluted river in Liuzhou 117 2 Factories belch out smoke in Benxi 117 3 Women protect themselves against air pollution in Shenyang 118 4 Selling wares at the edge of the garbage piles in Kunming 118 5 Wulong township in Yunnan province 119 6 Huang Long (Liuzhou Chemical Fertilizer Factory) 119 Figures 2.1 China’s environmental regulatory framework 38 3.1 Japanese environmental loans to China 1996–2001 60 3.2 The administration of Japanese environmental aid to China 65 4.1 The administration of UNDP environmental aid to China 95 4.2 The structure of the UNDP sustainable city projects in China 99 5.1 The sectoral composition of World Bank environmental lending 1988–1998 127 6.1 A conceptual framework for developing environmental capacity 162 Maps 0.1 Location of selected environmental projects in China 9 3.1 Regional location of selected Japanese environmental projects 67 5.1 World Bank Liaoning environment project 1995 139 5.2 World Bank Yunnan environment project 1996 145 5.3 World Bank Guangxi environment project 1998 150 Tables 0.1 Comparative donor approaches to environmental management in China 6 0.2 Regional location of donor-funded environmental projects in China 8 Illustrations ix 2.1 Chinese ambient air quality standards 31 2.2 Key indicators of industrial pollution abatement in China 32 2.3 Total emissions of TSP and SO2 in China 33 2.4 China’s environmental policies 39 2.5 Major Chinese environmental laws 1979–2002 41 3.1 Japanese aid in the environmental sector 1990–1999 55 3.2 Shenyang environmental improvement project 1996–2003 70 3.3 Benxi environmental improvement project 1996–2003 73 3.4 Huhhot environmental improvement project 1996–2003 75 3.5 Liuzhou environmental improvement project 1996–2003 76 3.6 Dalian environmental model city project 1999–2003 79 3.7 Guiyang environmental model city project 1999–2003 80 4.1 Industry benefits of the UNDP project in Benxi 1999 110 4.2 Achievements of cleaner production at Benxi Factory 2000 110 5.1 Local beneficiary participation in Bianyang neighbourhood, Nanning 1996–1998 153 6.1 An operational framework for developing environmental capacity 164 6.2 A regional comparison of environmental project outcomes in China 167 6.3 Water tariff adjustments in China 170 Preface This is a book about the relationship between international and local responses to environmental problems in China. It seeks to determine the effectiveness of inter- national environmental aid by exploring the linkages between different donor approaches and local capacity. To a certain extent, the study was motivated by the theoretical debate over the role of the market versus citizen participation in envi- ronmental management. I was interested in finding out how these ideas could translate into practice in the context of a developing country that was undergoing considerable economic and social change. However, my initial theoretical inquiry soon became overshadowed by practical considerations and, in particular, the problem of weak local capacity. I became convinced that, in the case of China, the promotion of market or participatory values via the processes of international aid was not enough to bring about an improvement in environmental management. Instead, it seemed to me that both international donors and the Chinese govern- ment needed to focus more of their attention upon developing environmental capacity at the local (provincial, municipal and country level). When I began the research in 1997 my initial inquiries led me to seriously reconsider the task that I had set myself. At the time, the Chinese government was still ill at ease with placing too much emphasis upon environmental protection. It was seen by many government officials as an unaffordable luxury. Although China appeared to be taking the environment seriously at the inter- national level through its participation in environmental negotiations, it remained deeply sceptical of the motives of international donors. In the eyes of the Chinese government, environmental assistance was double edged. It offered much needed financial and technical assistance but, at the same time, provided richer nations with political leverage over China’s future economic development. Scepticism appeared to run even deeper at the local level where hard evidence confirmed that economic realities far outweighed environmental concerns. But as the research progressed it soon became clear that important changes were underway. My focus upon environmental aid