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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DSpace at Waseda University Table of Contents Chapter One Introduction 1 1. Research Questions and Research Background 3 2. Literature Review 15 3. Hypothesis, Originality, Methodology and Framework of Chapters 27 Chapter Two Environmental Agendas and the institutional Predicaments 45 1. Environmental Agendas: for Development Sustainability and Social Stability 45 2. Upgrading Environmental Concern in Political Agendas: the Sate-led Progress 49 3. Systematic Predicaments: Paradox between Consciousness and Institutional 62 Guarantee 4. Demands of Informal Politics: Mobilization and Encouragement of Multiple 76 Participations Chapter Three “Social Units” for Embeddedness: Environmental NGO Activism and the Case of 84 Wild Conservation 1. Fringe NGOs participate in fringe political agendas 84 2. Environmental NGO Efforts to Shape the Subjectivity of the Civil Society 91 3. Analysis 109 Chapter Four Environmental Department Initiatives and Normalized Channel to link Politics and Society: 115 The Case of Yuanmingyuan Anti-seepage Project 1. The Case Happening At the Climax of the 20005 “EP Storm” 116 2. Entry of the Antiseepage Project into Media Coverage 119 3. Intervention of SEPA and the Official Orientation of mass media 123 4. Environmental Departments, NGOs and Mass Media United: against Original 133 Policy Makers 5. Public hearing: Orientation for Symbolic Meaning rather than Substantive 138 Meaning 6. Maintaining SEPA Pressure until Final Resolution 149 7. Analysis 156 Chapter Five Clash between Informal Environmental Politics and Institutional Vested Interest Group: 161 The Case of “Nu River Defense Battle” 1. Controversy on Dam Projects in China 162 2. Governmental Fragmentation Triggering Nu River Project (NRP) Controversy 174 i 3. Mobilization of Environmental NGOs 183 4. Social Risks of Environmental NGOs: a Different Angle to Understand the 192 Dual Identity 5. End to “Nu River Defend Battle” and Analysis of the Issue 216 Chapter Six Confirming Central Orthodoxy in Embedded Mobilization: The Case of Tai Lake 228 Crisis 1. Case Background and Process 230 2. Media Framing with Political Censorship: Local Control and Remote 239 Supervision 3. Bias of “Remote Supervision” Along With the Central Intervention 247 4. Analysis 253 Chapter Seven Conclusion: De facto embedded mobilization and the implication of Political 257 Modernization 1. Two Dilemmas 257 2. Composition of De Facto Embedded Mobilization in the Field of 259 Environmental Governance 3. Political Meaning of “Embedded Mobilization”: Institutionalization and 279 Democratization Glossary of Chinese Media in the Thesis 288 Biography 291 ii The Embedded Mobilization in Environmental Protection of China Party-state-societal Interactions, Informal Politics and Issue-oriented Political Development Chapter One Introduction From the late 1990s, we have seen the gradual rise of the environmental protection (EP) in ranks of China’s political agendas, and, the rapid rise of environmental social movements and green public sphere. Not only for environmental activists with clear stance, even in most authoritative official statement, the EP agenda has made a main factor to maintain the political legitimacy of the leading Communist Party, and a main criterion of “good governance”. With the consensus across political and social sphere, it may be very interesting to explore the Party-state-societal interactions which have brought positive environmental policies and active civil society in China, especially when the political restrictions and the mandatory objectives of industrialization are concerned. Researchers have found in China’s EP realm the active public participation, and, the findings have linked EP issues with civil societal growth and democratization, and further, an important breakthrough point of political development in China, because, the appeals of public participation in solving certain EP problems have always contained contents of political change, such as the construction of pluralistic policy-making regime, the improvement of people’s right of knowing and pariticipation, strengthening the authority of law, and so on. All the appeals, in theory, are taken to accordingly weaken the Party-state authority. And, a more radical idea expects that – with the enigmatic gap between the rapid growth of economy and the political system without fundamental change on the contrary China during the more-than-30-years reform – EP-related public participation demonstrates the dissatisfaction of educated middle-class who may bring broad social movements to topple down the government and establish a new political system which resembles, at least in theory, what had happened in some transforming 1 countries, like those ex-communist countries in East Europe and Soviet Union territory. According to this interpretation framework, we are demonstrated the prospect that: with shortage of resources, Party-state reduces its control on problem realms which are not so politically sensitive on one hand, and on the other hand, modernized social factors filled in the “power vacuum” left with habituating and finally institutionalizing new regimes of public participation. This interpretation may be not perfect without paying enough attention to initiatives of Party-state, to speak specifically, the strong and clear national willingness and initiative orientation of social mobilization with regard to EP according to its substantial importance for the rapidly industrializing country with the largest population and their poor per-capita quantity of natural resources. With the consciousness of the researching deficiency, this research tries to change the point view from “Party-state withdrawal and public entry” to the integration of both political and social initiatives and takes an area study in environmental realm in its theorizing efforts on Post-Reform China’s Party-state-societal relations in aspect of political development. It focuses on the interaction between the Party-state system and the growing civil society in the environmental policy process. And in addition, this research notices, under the strict restrictions to formal pluralistic participation regimes, China’s special mass media system has played a key role in integrating the political and civil activism, through its unique duality of Party-line and mass-line. From the very beginning of the research on China’s modern civil society growth and its political implications, its “interaction <hu dong>” with the Party-state has been a most important topic. And, in this research, the “interaction” is framed as “embedded mobilization” in accordance with the environmental issue-oriented “political mobilization (which literally called “social motivation” <she hui dong yuan> but totally different from the concept in Western countries)” process. Rather than the point view of taking environmental activism as the chance of bottom-up democratization movements, the focus on integration of institutional resources and informal politics in environmental activism bring this research originality. To speak specifically, in first place, despite of the succession of a traditional measure for the Party-state to implement the national 2 willingness, today’s “political mobilization” in dealing with environmental problems has gradually been deprived of its totalitarian color and been more embedded in the increasingly complex and pluralistic social structure. Secondly, the environmental activism at the civil-society-level has been also beneficial from the political measures, utilizing the institutional resources to achieve their certain purposes, especially through the network among political and intellectual elites. And lastly, the national willingness and civil targets achieve the integration through the mass media issue framing, to influence the environmental policymaking, and further, bring a gradual change to the political system in accordance with pluralism, democracy and modern institutionalization. 1. Research Questions and Research Background This research started by raising the questions that: is there any interpretation framework to integrate the initiatives of both political and social sphere? Does Party-state “withdraw” from the EP domain or just be changing the mode of implementing its authority, with mobilizing both institutional and non-institutional resources through positively changing certain methods or even the state system? What is the power source of the great activeness of green civil society? And, may it be possible to link the activeness to some special factors of Chinese politics, besides only framing it as a natural reflection of social modernization according to the paradigm of green politics in those developed democracies? And, there are three main factors leading to them as the research background. 1.1 Environmental Protection as An Important Political Agenda The first factor is the special position of the EP issue in China’s political agenda ranks. To speak specifically, the Party-state initiated even most strict green standards throughout the world, with the official environmental consciousness getting ahead of the public. As we know, the environmental concern had been kept in the sub-political sphere until the 1980s, and the “green politics” arose along with the emergence of green parties throughout the developed democracies in West 3 Europe. This new form of political movement didn’t only mean the upgrade of environmental issues in

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