China’s Environmental Crisis Environmental Politics And Theory Our current environmental crisis cannot be solved by technological innovation alone. The premise of this Series is that the environmental challenges we face today are, at their root, political crises involving political values. Growing public consciousness of the environmental crisis and its human and nonhuman impacts exemplifi ed by the worldwide urgency and political activity associated with the consequences of climate change make it imperative to study and achieve a sustainable and socially just society. The Series collects, extends, and develops ideas from the burgeon- ing empirical and normative scholarship spanning many disciplines with a global perspective. It addresses the need for social change from the hegemonic, consumer capitalist society in order to realize environmental sustainability and social justice. The Series Editor is Joel Jay Kassiola, Professor of Political Science and Dean of The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at San Francisco State University. China’s Environmental Crisis: Domestic and Global Political Impacts and Responses Edited by Joel Jay Kassiola and Sujian Guo China’s Environmental Crisis Domestic And Global Political Impacts And Responses Edited by Joel Jay Kassiola and Sujian Guo CHINA’S ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS Copyright © Joel Jay Kassiola and Sujian Guo, 2010. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-10664-2 All rights reserved. First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States – a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-29026-0 ISBN 978-0-230-11436-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230114364 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data China’s environmental crisis : domestic and global political impacts and responses / edited by Joel Jay Kassiola and Sujian Guo. p. cm. — (Environmental politics and theory) 1. Environmental policy—China. 2. Economic development— China—Environmental aspects. 3. Social change—China. 4. Political participation—China. I. Kassiola, Joel Jay, 1945– II. Guo, Sujian, 1957– HC430.E5.C435 2010 363.700951—dc22 2010014497 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by MPS Limited, A Macmillan Company First edition: November 2010 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Contributors vii Introduction: China’s Environmental Crisis—A Global Crisis with Chinese Characteristics: From Confucius to Cell Phones 1 Joel Jay Kassiola and Sujian Guo Part I Current Ecological Conditions and Public Policies in China: Desertifi cation, Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Food Security 11 1 Desertifi cation in China: Problems with Policies and Perceptions 13 Hong Jiang 2 Network Public Management and the Challenge of Biodiversity Management in China 41 Sara R. Jordan 3 Changing Climate? China’s New Interest in Global Climate Change Negotiations 61 Wei Liang 4 Environmental Degradation and Food Security Policies in China 85 Jerry McBeath and Jenifer Huang McBeath Part II The Formation and Policy Infl uences of ENGOs (Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations) in China 121 5 State and Society in China’s Environmental Politics 123 Björn Alpermann 6 Responding to Climate Disaster: The Cosmopolitan Challenge to China 153 Paul G. Harris vi Contents Part III Environmentally Caused Social Change in China: New Media Technologies and Traditional Confucian Values Updated 177 7 Digital Power: Public Participation in an Environmental Controversy 179 Yanmin Yu and Fanxu Zeng 8 Confucianizing Modernity and “Modernizing” Confucianism: Environmentalism and The Need for a Confucian Positive Argument for Social Change 195 Joel Jay Kassiola Index 219 Contributors Björn Alpermann, Assistant Professor for Contemporary Chinese Studies at University of Würzburg, Germany. He received his MA degree in Modern Chinese Studies, Political Science, and Economics and Ph.D. in Modern Chinese Studies, both from University of Cologne. His fi elds of research include China’s rural politics, espe- cially village governance, China’s political economy as well as social stratifi cation and political culture. Professor Alpermann has published several scholarly articles on these topics, e.g., in The China Journal, Journal of Contemporary China, and the Journal of Chinese Political Science, and authored two monographs The State in the Village: Village Self-Administration in China (in German, 2001) and China’s Cotton Industry: Economic Transformation and State Capacity (Routledge, 2010). Sujian Guo, Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of Center for U.S.-China Policy Studies at San Francisco State University. He holds concurrent appointments as Associate Dean and Distinguished Professor of Fudan Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences at Fudan University. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chinese Political Science, Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Series Editor of Rowman & Littlefi eld-Lexington’s Chinese political studies, and former President of Association of Chinese Political Studies. He received his MA degree from Peking University and Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee. His research interests include Chinese/Asian politics, U.S.-China relations, communist and postcommunist studies, democratic transitions, and the political economy of East and South- east Asia. He has published more than 30 academic articles both in English and Chinese. His authored and edited books include Thirty Years of China-US Relations: Analytical Approaches and Contemporary Issues (2010); Environmental Protection Policy and Experience in the U.S. and China’s Western Regions (2010); Greater China in an Era of Globalization (2009); Harmonious World and Chinese New Foreign viii Contributors Policy (2008); China in Search of a Harmonious Society (2008); Chal- lenges Facing Chinese Political Development (2007); New Dimensions of Chinese Foreign Policy (2007); China in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges and Opportunities (2007); The Political Economy of Asian Transition from Communism (2006); China’s ‘Peaceful Rise’ in the 21st Century: Domestic and International Conditions (2006); and Post- Mao China: From Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism? (2000). Paul G. Harris, Chair Professor of Global and Environmental Studies at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, where he is Head of the Department of Social Sciences, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Governance and Citizenship, and a member of the Department of Science and Environmental Studies. He is author of International Equity and Global Environmental Politics (Ashgate), World Ethics and Climate Change (Edinburgh University Press) and over 100 scholarly journal articles and book chapters. He is editor of Climate Change and American Foreign Policy (St. Martin’s Press/Palgrave Macmillan), The Environment, International Relations, and U.S. Foreign Policy (Georgetown University Press), International Environ- mental Cooperation (University Press of Colorado), Global Warming and East Asia (Routledge), Confronting Environmental Change in East and Southeast Asia (United Nations University Press/Earthscan), Europe and Global Climate Change (Edward Elgar), Environmental Change and Foreign Policy (Routledge), Climate Change and Foreign Policy (Routledge), and The Politics of Climate Change (Routledge). He is coeditor of The Global Politics of AIDS (Lynne Rienner). Hong Jiang, Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Hawaii (Manoa). Her research focuses on cultural geography and the environment in China. She has done extensive research in Inner Mongolia, where she explored issues of land use and ecological changes from cultural and political perspectives. Currently her work involves discursive analyses of China’s environmental policies, percep- tions of the environment, and attitudes toward nature. She received her Ph.D. from Clark University (MA), and has published extensively on China’s environment. Her articles have appeared in journals such as Annals of Association of American Geographers, World Development, and Geoforum, and in publicly accessible magazines and newspapers. Sara R. Jordan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics & Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong. She received his doctorate from Texas A&M University. Her teaching and research specialties are in ethics and public management, with area specialties Contributors ix in academic research ethics and civil service ethics. Her most recent manuscript Global Ethics and Global Governance is available through Baylor University Press. Joel J. Kassiola, Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University. He received his MA and Ph.D. degrees from the Political Philosophy Program at Princeton University. His research program after several publications in various political theory themes: the conduct of nor- mative inquiry, politics and literature, the justifi cation for affi rmative action,