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China's Environmental State and Civil Society CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Glasgow Theses Service Extending Environmental Governance: China’s Environmental State and Civil Society Thomas Johnson Department of Politics University of Glasgow April 2009 89,888 words Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Ph.D in politics in the Department of Politics at the University of Glasgow ii Abstract This thesis is a study of environmental governance reform in China. It investigates how new governance policies and arrangements are being introduced in order to overcome problems associated with China’s sizable environmental protection ‘implementation deficit’. Using an analytical framework based on ‘good governance’ criteria of accountability, transparency, participation, and rule of law, it focuses on developments within China’s environmental state, which includes state agencies and their policies, and civil society, incorporating environmental protection NGOs, citizen activists, and the media. Based on in-depth, qualitative research, this thesis examines several aspects of environmental governance reform in China: attempts to make local officials pay greater attention to environmental issues, formal public participation legislation and mechanisms, information disclosure, and ‘private interest’ activism. This thesis identifies interactions between the environmental state and civil society as vital in establishing new, more participatory governance processes. Through acting as ‘policy pioneers’, environmental activists can consolidate governance reforms emanating from the environmental state, and promote new governance norms. At the same time, however, this thesis identifies significant obstacles to the establishment of a more inclusive ‘governance’ approach to environmental protection in China that goes beyond Party-state institutions and actors. For this reason, it challenges the argument that China’s system of environmental governance is likely to converge any further with those observed in western liberal democracies. ii iii Table of Contents ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................................................... II LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS............................................................................................................................... V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..............................................................................................................................VIII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................... 1 China’s Environmental Challenge ................................................................................................... 1 China’s Environmental Protection ‘Implementation Deficit’............................................................ 5 Environmental Governance Reform: Moving Beyond the TPP ........................................................ 8 Reforming China’s Environmental Governance System: Towards Convergence? .......................... 13 The Governance Concept .............................................................................................................. 25 Summary of the Arguments........................................................................................................... 30 Methodology................................................................................................................................. 32 Outline of the Dissertation............................................................................................................. 34 CHAPTER 2: DEVELOPMENTS AND TRENDS IN CHINA’S ENVIRONMENTAL STATE AND CIVIL SOCIETY ................................................................................................................................................. 40 Environmental Protection in the PRC: Current Institutions and Challenges.................................... 41 China’s Environmental State Under the Planned Economy ............................................................ 47 China’s Environmental State in the Reform Period ........................................................................ 50 Environmental Civil Society.......................................................................................................... 61 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................... 73 CHAPTER 3 : REFORMING THE ENVIRONMENTAL STATE – GREEN GDP AND ENVIRONMENTAL STORMS.......................................................................................................................... 75 Background................................................................................................................................... 79 Towards a New Development Paradigm........................................................................................ 84 Green GDP ................................................................................................................................... 86 Environmental Storms................................................................................................................... 90 Wider Political Motives and the Role of Civil Society ................................................................... 95 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................... 97 CHAPTER 4: CREATING A LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ............................................................................................................................................. 101 The Evolution of Environmental Public Participation Policy in China.......................................... 105 Public participation in the EIA process: The Yuanmingyuan Public Hearing................................ 114 Hydropower development in Yunnan .......................................................................................... 122 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................. 128 CHAPTER 5: ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION DISCLOSURE IN CHINA.................................... 133 Environmental Information Disclosure ........................................................................................ 135 iii iv The Evolution of Environmental Information Disclosure in China............................................... 138 Information Disclosure and Environmental NGOs....................................................................... 147 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................. 161 CHAPTER 6: PRIVATE INTEREST ACTIVISM......................................................................................... 166 Contentious Politics and Social Movements ................................................................................ 167 Environmental Private Interest Activism in China ....................................................................... 170 Significance of Private Interest Activism..................................................................................... 189 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................. 193 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 196 Main Findings............................................................................................................................. 199 Developments in the Environmental State ................................................................................... 206 Implications for Environmental Civil Society .............................................................................. 211 Limits to Convergence ................................................................................................................ 216 Implications for Wider Political Reform...................................................................................... 223 Limits to this Thesis.................................................................................................................... 227 Prospects for Environmental Governance in China ...................................................................... 228 REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................... 231 Newspaper Articles ..................................................................................................................... 269 APPENDIX: INTERVIEWEE LIST................................................................................................................ 293 iv v List of Abbreviations ADB Asian Development Bank APP Asia Pulp and Paper Company Limited CCP Chinese Communist Party CCTV China Central Television COD Chemical Oxygen Demand CPPCC Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference EEEC Earthview Environmental Education Centre EIA Environmental Impact Assessment EPB Environmental Protection Bureau EPL Environmental Protection Law (of the People’s Republic of China) EPNRCC Environmental Protection and Natural
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