Charge to the Bush Administration: U.S. Interests in ... · United States. The energy relations between the United States and major industrializing countries also urgently need attention

CHINA ENVIRONMENT SERIES · ISSUE 4 57

Charge to the Bush Administration:U.S. Interests in Energy Cooperation with China

COMMENTARIES

By Kelly Sims

Energy policy should be a pivotal component of theBush administration’s agenda. California’s electricity

shortages, higher national energy prices, OPEC’spersistent obstinacy, and the need to reduce thegreenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. energy systemare among the daunting challenges presently faced by theUnited States. The energy relations between the UnitedStates and major industrializing countries also urgentlyneed attention. For compelling economic, security, andenvironmental reasons, it is in U.S. national interest toforge constructive relationships with these countries, andespecially with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).The Clinton administration recognized the need forenergy cooperation with China but failed to articulateand implement a coherent and effective policy. Now theBush administration has a fresh chance to strengthen theU.S. approach to China on energy matters.

Security InterestsA prosperous and stable China is not only good for

the Chinese people but also for the rest of the worldbecause internal volatility would most likely renderChina’s government less reformist, less open tocooperation with other nations, and more prone tooverreact to perceived threats. Energy can play afundamental role in such stability because reliable energysupplies promote a country’s perception of security.Energy directly affects personal well-being and satisfactionby providing basic services such as heating, cooking, andlighting.

Although the United States presently imports tentimes more oil than China, Chinese oil imports aregrowing. The PRC became a net importer of refined oilin 1993 and a net importer of crude oil in 1996. IncreasedChinese dependence on oil imports from the Middle Eastand the Caspian Sea regions may lead China’s governmentto take steps to maintain assured access to sources of oilthat the United States might find problematic. Chinamight also act aggressively to control the energy resourceslocated off its coasts in the South China Sea and SpratlyIslands. Solutions that reduce reliance on oil areadvantageous to both countries in that they would lessen

the potential regional and international conflict over oilsupplies.

China’s energy development also poses more directsecurity concerns such as those related to its nuclear energyagenda. Currently, China possesses only a few nuclearreactors with just 2 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, but dueto energy shortages, the government has announcedambitious plans to enlarge its capacity to 40 GW by 2020.Enlarging China’s nuclear energy capacity would enableChinese policymakers to pursue their intentions tocommercially reprocess spent fuel (a pilot facility is underconstruction), heightening the risk of the proliferationof nuclear materials.

Economic InterestsThe 1999 Permanent Normal Trading Relations

(PNTR) agreement negotiated between China and theUnited States enjoys bipartisan support in the UnitedStates. China’s faithful implementation of this accord andsmooth entry into the World Trade Organization willdepend on the steadiness and thoroughness of its domesticeconomic and political reforms. Political reforms will relyupon continued economic success, which in great partdepends on responsible energy policies. Energy is stillclosely linked to industrial development and economicgrowth in China since the industrial sector presentlyconsumes nearly 70 percent of the entire country’s non-biomass energy consumption. However, China’s economygrew twice as fast as its energy use in recent years, provingthat economic growth can become less dependent onenergy inputs.

Until the Asian recession, which began in 1997,demand for energy in China outpaced supply by as muchas fifteen percent, indicating that energy shortageshindered Chinese economic activity during the lastdecade. The recent oversupply of energy in China is likelyto swiftly disappear as the economy regains steam. China’senergy consumption grew by as much as six percentannually during the mid-1990s. If this consumptiongrowth continues at the same rate, China’s energy usecould easily double within twenty years, placing unduepressures on world energy supply if measures are not taken

58 CHINA ENVIRONMENT SERIES · ISSUE 4

COMMENTARIES

to reduce demand. Seventy-five million Chinese still lackaccess to basic energy services like electricity. Therefore,as living standards improve—not only for theimpoverished but also for the middle class—residentialdemand for electricity will rise due to acquisitions ofappliances like refrigerators and televisions. One tellingexample of China’s growing energy hunger is that therewere only 500,000 televisions in China in 1978, but by1997 this number had grown to more than 36 million.

China’s burgeoning energy demand could alsoprovide the United States with a number of economicopportunities. For example, the United States could

confront the fact that China is second only to the UnitedStates as a producer of climate-altering carbon dioxide,and its emissions are rapidly increasing. The United Statescurrently produces about a quarter of the world’sgreenhouse gas emissions, and China emits about halfthat amount. Whether or not President Bush decides tosupport the Kyoto Protocol, if he accepts the science ofclimate change (which he should), a strategy must bedevised to directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions inboth countries that takes equity and fairness concernsinto account. An ounce of prevention in energydevelopment is worth a pound of cure. China is rapidly

Given the tremendous growth projected for China’s energy system,the United States should strive to become China’s most trusted and

reliable supplier of energy goods and services.

substantially reduce its trade deficit with China throughtrade in energy goods and services. In 1999, powergeneration equipment was the largest American exportto China. Given the tremendous growth projected forChina’s energy system, the United States should strive tobecome China’s most trusted and reliable supplier ofenergy goods and services. Greater commercialcooperation between the two countries would permitAmerican businesses to better understand and adapt tothe Chinese market, hopefully enhancing market access.The recent decision to authorize the U.S. Trade andDevelopment Agency to work again in China on energy,environment, and aviation safety-related businessopportunities is a good start in this direction. China’smarket potential is enormous, particularly as it diversifiesits fuel supply and embraces natural gas, renewableenergies, clean coal technology, and continues its intensivecampaign to improve energy efficiency.

Environmental InterestsChina’s environmental problems are severe. Nine of

the ten most polluted cities in the world are located inChina, a third of China’s land is now affected by aciddeposition, and Chinese pollutants are reportedlytraveling across the Pacific Ocean to reach the Oregoncoast (Editor’s Note: See fact sheet on the Wilson CenterWeb site for more facts on transboundary air pollution fromChina http://ecsp.si.edu). The costs of environmentaldamage in China have been estimated to be equivalent tobetween 4.5 and 12 percent of China’s annual GDP. Evenif the United States is less immediately concerned withthe state of environment and health in China, it must

building a gigantic energy infrastructure and thereforeaccumulating expensive capital stock that will last a longtime. If climate change proves to be as dangerous as manyprojections suggest, it would be exceedingly difficult toquickly transform China’s energy system if its new energyinfrastructure continues to rely so heavily on coal.

The Path ForwardThe United States and China are the two largest

energy-consuming countries in the world. Both dependon coal as a fuel for electricity production and industrialuse, both have experienced regional energy shortages inrecent years, have good renewable energy and hydropowerresources, and are struggling to manage the environmentalconsequences of their energy use. Despite these similaritiesthere are important differences as well. Unlike America,China has substantially improved its overall energyefficiency in recent decades. Moreover, China presentlyconfronts much faster growth in its demand for energy,has far fewer oil and gas resources, and lacks affordableadvanced energy technologies. Given their differentapproaches to energy management, there is much thesetwo great powers could learn from each other.

Given the commonalties in energy challenges, as wellas the security, economic, and environmental interests atstake in China’s energy development, the Bushadministration faces an acute choice at this time. Willthe administration deliberately cultivate a friendship basedon mutual energy interests or choose to live with anunpredictable competitor? Given the challenges beforeboth countries, it would be infinitely more constructivefor their leaders to focus attention and resources on


cooperatively developing solutions to their joint energydilemmas.

First and foremost, the Bush administration shoulddevise and articulate a clear policy of energy cooperation.A simple declaration should be issued that plainly statesa broad desire to cooperate with China on energy matters.Commercial, environmental, technological, anddiplomatic energy cooperation could actually be a usefulmethod to build confidence and trust between the newBush administration and China’s government. But statingintention is not enough. A comprehensive and strategicU.S. energy policy towards China needs to beimplemented that takes into account all of America’s vitalinterests. This overarching policy must be integrated intothe daily work of the federal agencies including theEnvironmental Protection Agency, the Departments ofDefense, State, Treasury, Energy, and Commerce, theTrade and Development Agency, and the U.S. TradeRepresentative’s Office if it is to be effective. For example,if the Bush administration decides to support anexpansion of natural gas infrastructure, energyconservation, and renewable energy use in China, then itmust diplomatically push for such policies at high levelswhile providing low-interest loans and export assistanceto relevant U.S. companies.

In contemplating its first concrete steps towardscooperation, the Bush administration could reconsiderthe current ban on bilateral aid to China in the energy

sector. It should also ponder continued participation inthe joint Oil & Gas Forum and the U.S.-China Forumon Environment and Development, although both arein need of rejuvenation. In the year 2000, an importantreport was issued jointly by the Chinese and AmericanAcademies of Science on cooperation in the energy futuresof China and the United States (led by Richard Balzhiserof the Electric Power Research Council). One of theirmany practical recommendations was that a standingcommittee should be established between the twoacademies to facilitate joint energy research. This wouldhelp improve energy research and developmentcooperation between the two largest consumers of energyin the world. These steps would make achievement ofthe implicit goals outlined here more likely. Cooperativeenergy activities could make energy more readily availableto China as it industrializes, widen market access forAmerican energy goods and services, improve Chineseenergy efficiency to reduce global competition for oilsupplies, and limit emissions of air pollutants andgreenhouse gases.

Kelly Sims is a Researcher on Energy Technology InnovationProject at the Belfer Center of Science and InternationalAffairs and a doctoral candidate, Fletcher School of Law &Diplomacy. She can be contacted at [email protected]

Now Available in ECSP Report Issue 6

• Feature Articles on Environmental Conflict in the Niger Delta,and Human Population Stresses in the 21st Century.• Special Report from the National Intelligence Council on theGlobal Infectious Disease Threat and Its Implications for the U.S.• Commentaries, ECSP Meetings Summaries, and a BibliographicGuide.

Coming Soon: ECSP Report Issue 7

• Feature Articles on Environmental Stress and Human Securityin North Pakistan, How U.S. Intelligence Monitoring Can Aidthe Environmental Security Mission.• Commentaries on the National Intelligence Council’s GlobalTrends 2015 Report• Forum: Is There a Population Implosion?


COMMENTARIES

China’s Changing Carbon Dioxide Emissions

By Jeffrey Logan

China’s energy consumption trends appear to havechanged dramatically since 1996 (See Sinton and

Fridley paper in this volume pp: xx-yy.). Chinesegovernment statistics indicate that gross domestic product(GDP) expanded by approximately 25 percent betweenJanuary 1997 and December 1999 while overall energyconsumption declined by over 12 percent. These divergenttrends, while still poorly understood, appear to haveresulted in roughly a 20 percent reduction in the year2000 carbon dioxide emissions compared to earlierforecasts. This short commentary summarizes earlierforecasts and compares them to trends over the past fewyears.

China is currently the world’s second largest emitterof greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide (CO

2) emissions,

primarily from fossil fuel combustion, account forapproximately 85 percent of the total emissions.1 China’srapid economic growth, heavy dependence on coal, andinefficient industrial structure have raised concern thatfuture emissions will offset reductions from othercountries. Despite these concerns, it should be noted that1999 per capita CO

2 emissions in the United States were

eight times higher than in China.Chinese and international experts collaborated on at

least five major studies during the 1990s on greenhousegas emission scenarios (see Table 1). One main goal ineach study was to project baseline future energy use andassociated carbon dioxide emissions and then to provideat least one alternative policy scenario resulting in loweremissions. Other objectives were to characterize presentand future non-CO

2 emissions, discuss the potential

impacts of a changing climate on China, and quantifyimpacts of climate policy on emissions of other pollutantssuch as oxides of sulfur and nitrogen. All studies usedcomputational models to simulate interaction betweenthe economic and energy sectors. The U.S. Departmentof Energy also produces annual updates for energyconsumption and climate emissions in China; the EnergyInformation Administration (EIA) publishes theseforecasts in the annual International Energy Outlook(http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/index.html).

Forecasts of energy consumption vary between eachstudy because of different assumptions about economicgrowth and structural composition, fuel use, technologydiffusion, energy efficiency, environmental regulation,demographic trends, and other secondary issues. TheWorld Bank study, for example, forecasted higher energyuse than most other studies because it assumed GDP

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BDA 4991

saGesuohneerGnisnoitpOdnaseussI:anihC)knaBdlroW(lortnoCsnoissimE

BW 4991

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latnemnorivnEsnoitaNdetinU(anihC)emmargorP

PENU 5991

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Table 1 - Selected Sudies on Greenhouse Gas Emissions in China


growth would average about 8 percent between 1990 and2020 compared to the approximately 7 percent estimateutilized in the other studies (see Table 2).

Each study translated the energy consumptionforecasts into carbon dioxide emissions using carbonequivalent coefficients. There was some variation in thecoefficients used, but in general they followed theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change guidelines.

The most striking observation from Table 2 is thatcarbon dioxide emissions in 2000 calculated fromreported energy consumption statistics are significantlylower than the average value forecasted from these studies.The average forecast of carbon dioxide emissions in 2000from fossil fuel use in the baseline scenarios from the fivestudies was 950 million tons of carbon. Based on energystatistics reported through 1999 (and estimated for 2000),carbon dioxide emissions in 2000 were approximately724 million tons, or 24 percent less than the average ofthe forecasts. In examining the information rowcontaining revised values for energy consumption andcarbon dioxide emissions most likely some unreportedenergy consumption is occurring and that carbon

emissions are also understated by the State StatisticalBureau.2 Even using the revised estimates, carbonemissions are approximately 19 percent lower than earlierforecasts. Thus, these estimates indicate a significant dropin CO

2 emissions in China.

Each of the studies developed at least one policyscenario that could result in lower emissions. Typicalpolicy options include energy efficiency standards, fuelswitching, or promotion of carbon-friendly technologies.The average value of energy consumption for the all thepolicy scenarios in 2000 was 1535 MTCE. Withoutadopting specific measures to mitigate carbon emissions—and apparently without significant damage to itseconomy—China is already below this level, althoughclearly, future trends may change.

More research is needed to understand the apparentdrop in energy consumption. China’s accelerating shiftto a market economy is clearly changing the nature ofenergy use in ways earlier forecasts did not anticipate.While the majority of reduction appears real, illegal coalmining may be distorting official statistics. In particular,researchers need to survey coal-mining areas that were

2000 2020 2000 2020

Primary Energy ConsumptionMillion Tons of Coal Equivalent (MTCE)

Carbon EmissionsMillions of Tons of Carbon

(MTC)

Table 2 - Forecasts of Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions in China

laoC latoT laoC latoT

BDA 4501 1941 7151 5342 709 4531

BW 4211 1651 4122 1033 789 5402

PENU 2701 5051 6261 5452 7201 6361

SCCC 9611 2651 2891 8772 519 4851

SAGLA 9611 2651 2202 0292 519 5961

AIE 7211 6511 6922 3943 1902

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508 0321 5431 3722 427 5621

desiveRBSS b 368 2131 1441 1262 277 1041


COMMENTARIES

reportedly closed to estimate how much illegal productionmight be occurring.

China appears to have surprised both domestic andinternational experts by producing far less carbon dioxidethan had been previously forecast. Unlike countries ofthe Former Soviet Union though, it has done so whilemaintaining relatively strong economic growth.Understanding the linkage between economic reform andenergy consumption would help better predict futuretrends and focus limited resources on the most promisingmitigation options.

Jeffrey Logan works in the Advanced International StudiesUnit of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) inWashington, DC. PNNL is operated by Battelle MemorialInstitute for the U.S. Department of Energy. He can becontacted at [email protected]

References

China State Science and Technology Commission. (1999). Asialeast cost greenhouse gas abatement strategy (ALGAS): China.Manila: Asian Development Bank.

East-West Center, Argonne National Laboratory, and TsinghuaUniversity. (1994). National response strategy for global climatechange: People’s Republic of China. Manila: Asian DevelopmentBank.

Research Team of China Climate Change Country Study(CCCS). (1999). China climate change country study. Beijing:Tsinghua University Press.

Joint Study Team. (1994). China: issues and options in greenhousegas control. Washington DC: The World Bank.Logan Jeffrey. (2001 Forthcoming). “Chinese energy and carbontrends: assessing statistical uncertainty at the turn of thecentury,” Washington, DC: Pacific Northwest NationalLaboratory.

Sinton, Jonathan. and D. Fridley. (2000). “What goes up: recenttrends in China’s energy consumption.” Energy Policy, 28(10):671-687.

State Statistical Bureau. (2000). Zhongguo Tongji Zhaiyao 2000(China statistical abstracts 2000). Beijing: China Statistical Press.

State Statistical Bureau. (1999). China statistical yearbook 1999.Beijing: China Statistics Press.

United Nations Environment Programme and NationalEnvironmental Protection Agency. (1996). Incorporation ofenvironmental considerations in energy planning in the People’sRepublic of China. Beijing: China Environmental Science Press.

Endnotes

1 Cement production contributes approximately 3.5 percentto total carbon dioxide emissions, while methane emissions fromagriculture and energy production account for most of theremainder (CCCS 1999).

2 For more details on these revised estimates, see Logan 2001.a Reported energy consumption for 2000 is based on data

published by China’s State Statistical Bureau and preliminarystatistics for 2000. Values for 2020 are projected from thereported data using energy growth figures in the CCCS report.

b Revised values assume that some unreported energy use,primarily coal, is occurring.


I did not realize that my year of dissertation research in China would begin almost as soon as I walked off

the plane at Beijing International Airport and boarded ataxi bound for my new home at Beijing NormalUniversity. Weaving through a typically chaotic afternoonrush hour, two sharply contradictory sights appeared outof my window that left me perplexed about the China Iwas entering. The first was a community of homelesspeople, camped in makeshift tents beneath a highwaybridge. The second was a crowd of Beijingers, streamingbeneath the golden-lettered marquis of one of the mostfrequented retail outlets in the city—no, not McDonald’sbut the furniture superstore IKEA. In the four monthssince that taxi ride, I have found no need to struggle to“seek the contradictions in things,” as the Maoist refrainonce advised. Contradictions in modern China areomnipresent. They are not only noticeable in thejuxtaposition between those without a permanentresidence and those rushing to purchase residentialfurniture, they can also be found in my research of China’senvironmental policy. Specifically, there exists a starkcontradiction between what is discussed and what feasiblycan be applied to improve environmental quality in Chinatoday.

Painting China’s environmental future as an exercisein contradictions might seem a rather pessimistic way tobegin this assessment. I write this article, however, withcautious optimism for the future of environmentalprotection efforts in China. For in the brief time I havebeen back in China conducting environmental policyresearch, I have witnessed how future environmentalpolicymakers in China are taking ownership of new waysto manage the environment. I have also seen signs thatthe balance between state and society with regard topollution control might be changing.

Countless interviews and observations inform mythinking on this matter. However, my auditing of anenvironmental economics class at Beijing NormalUniversity in 2000 and participating in a workshop onpublic disclosure in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu have been two ofmy more memorable experiences influencing mycautiously optimistic appraisal of China’s environmentalfuture. The core question, though, is whether the newmarket-based approaches to environmental policy,

“Seeking Contradictions” in the Field: Environmental Economics,Public Disclosure and Cautious Optimism about

China’s Environmental FutureBy Eric Zusman

discussed in the environmental economics class, orattempts to institutionalize public participation in thepollution abatement process, discussed at the publicdisclosure workshop, will narrow or widen a fundamentaldivide. This is the divide between environmentalprotection policies that originated in free market,politically transparent, developed countries and theirimplementation in a partially reformed, less thanpolitically transparent, developing China. I offer myanalysis of the environmental economics class and thepublic disclosure workshop to illuminate a direction thatChina could head in the future.

Environmental Economics at Beijing NormalUniversity

Nestled on the northwestern side of the campus ofBeijing Normal University is the Environmental ScienceGraduate School. Following in the footsteps of China’selite universities such as People’s University and BeijingUniversity, which began to offer environmental economicsin the early 1990s, Beijing Normal University’senvironmental economics class opened to first-yearMasters students in 1999.

On my first day in class, my biggest concern waswhether I would be able to comprehend the lecture. MyChinese language skills had atrophied considerably sinceI had taken my last Mandarin class five years ago. I soondiscovered that my concerns were unwarranted. The termsraised in lecture were largely Chinese translations of thevocabulary one encounters in an introductorymicroeconomic theory class. Thus, once I realized thatgongji chuxian referred to supply curve and xuqiu chuxianreferred to demand curve, it was much easier to followlectures on the behavior of profit-maximizing firms andother essential principles of free market economics. Whatwas less familiar was the second half of the class, whichmoved from Adam Smith’s invisible hand (kanbujian deshou) to the work of Pigou (Bigu) and Ronald Coase (Kese)to more recent efforts to bring tradable emission permitsto China.1

More than the content, what struck me about classwas how student assignments concentrated on applyingtheory. Graded work emphasized taking principlescovered in class out to the real world. For example, one


COMMENTARIES

of the more intriguing projects involved visiting a nearbypublic park and evaluating the park’s environmental valueby talking to patrons about their willingness to pay fortickets. Inside the classroom, there was also a sense thatthe best way to learn was to engage the materials andshare ideas.

This connection between idea sharing and concernfor how ideas might work in China was clearly evidentduring the liveliest group discussion of the semester. Withtwo classes remaining, students were asked to dividethemselves into groups based upon whether they wereoptimistic, pessimistic or neutral about the use of market-based instruments to regulate China’s environment.Initially, the debate followed a set protocol; the optimistgroup spoke first, followed by the pessimist group, andthen the neutral group. Yet, as the comfort level grew andas new ideas were hatched, the formalities of structureddebate receded and an animated discussion ensued.

Watching the debate unfold was fascinating fromboth a participant’s perspective and an observer’s pointof view. As a participant, the debate focused on whetherChina’s partially reformed political and economicstructures could adopt and effectively implement market-driven environmental policies. To oversimplify matters,the optimist group said yes, the pessimists said no, andthe neutral group said sometimes in some places. I satwith the optimists for reasons that differed from my fellowclassmates. As a somewhat detached observer of the debateand class more generally, it occurred to me that if market-driven policies were to work eventually in China, the nextgeneration of environmental policymakers, administratorsand planners must contemplate how these policies willmeet China’s needs. Clearly, just as in developed countries,theories of how total emission controls or tradablepollution permits should curb industrial pollution mustbe modified to suit on the ground conditions. Just asclearly, at least 15 students at Beijing Normal Universityand many other students in China, have already begunto contemplate where such theory meets practice.

Bringing Information to the PeopleTwo short taxi rides and a 16-hour train ride from

Beijing Normal University will take one many places inChina, including the Yichuan Hotel in Zhenjiang,Jiangsu. On 17 December 2000, I made this journey toattend a workshop sponsored by the World Bank and theState Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).The purpose of the workshop was to disseminate resultsfrom an industrial pollution, public disclosure projectthat had been implemented in Zhenjiang and Hohot,Nei Mengu since 1998. World Bank experts, SEPA

officials, university professors and leaders from theZhenjiang and Hohot Environmental Protection Bureaus(EPBs) convened the workshop, speaking to an audienceof EPB representatives from more than 30 different citiesthroughout the country.

It was clear from the onset that the primary goal ofthe workshop was not merely to disseminate project resultsbut to explain the purpose behind disclosing information.The workshop leaders argued that providing communitieswith information about the behavior of local enterprisescreates societal pressures on the enterprises to becomemore environmentally responsible. It also creates indirectpressures on the local environmental bureaus to heightentheir regulatory efforts. SEPA officials and their WorldBank counterparts see public disclosure as the initial forayinto the third stage of China’s environmental policydevelopment. The adoption of command-control policiesand market-driven policies constituted the first two stagesof this ongoing process. The conference leadersmaintained that as China moves into this third stage ofpollution control policy development the intent is not touse information to replace command-control or market-driven instruments but rather to strengthen theseinstruments, becoming what conference leadersenvisioned as the third side of a pollution control triangle.

The workshop turned next to an explanation of themechanics of the system in Zhenjiang and Hohot. Theessential features of the information disclosure system wereguidelines based on national and internationalenvironmental standards and a color coding systems thattranslated these guidelines into laymen’s terms. Forexample, an enterprise in Zhenjiang with an extremelydamaging pollution accident (teda wuran shigu) in thepast year was automatically placed in the lowestenvironmental rating, the black category. If an enterprisehad avoided an extremely damaging accident and hadnot exceeded pollution standards over the past year, itqualified for the next tier, the red ranking. Guidelinesgrew more stringent with each rung of the ranking system.After the rankings were completed for the major pollutingindustries in Zhenjiang and Hohot, the industries wereinformed and the results were released to the public viagovernment circulars and the local news media. This colorcoding system significantly increases citizen access toinformation concerning local factory emissions. Futureplans to increase the regularity of reporting are in theworks as are plans to implement similar systems in 15cities in Jiangsu Province.

According to an interview with a conference planner,well before the World Bank sponsored project seniorofficials in SEPA had recognized that public disclosure


could be a useful tool. What was lacking, was a mechanismthat could efficiently disseminate information to Chinesecitizens in a form that could be easily understood. SEPAalso lacked the resources to build such a mechanism.While the World Bank provided the necessary funding,the key to the project’s success was the mechanism’sconceptual design. The implied and unstated point herewas that making policies that unlock societal forces inChina is a sensitive business. A fine line separateschanneling society to strengthen the hand of thegovernment and making government accountable tosociety. The former can be tolerated, while the lattercannot. The beauty of the public disclosure system forSEPA was that it adeptly harnessed societal forces toachieve state-sponsored goals without empowering societyto the extent that the goals themselves or the officialscharged with implementing them were challenged.

As the workshop proceedings came to a close, I beganto ponder the differences between what I had witnessedin the two-day workshop and what I experienced onTuesday afternoons in my environmental economics class.At one level, the two were completely different forums.The workshop in Zhenjiang was very much a contentladen, top-down affair, with the audience listening andthe leaders explaining. There was little exchange betweenthe local EPB representatives and the officials in chargeof the proceedings. Yet, at another more rudimentary level,the workshop and my class had much in common. Theywere both venues in which environmental protectionconcepts that originated outside of China were beingoffered, contemplated, and, in some minds, reconfiguredto meet the needs of a China that is still partially reformed

and less than transparent. The contradiction betweentheoretical discussions of new environmental policies andthe feasibility of applying them is narrowing.

Before leaving Zhenjiang on my way back to Beijing,I wandered up the road from my hotel to catch somefresh air. On the way, I walked past a spinach field soverdant that it seemed ready to harvest itself. Shortlythereafter, I passed a group of farmers circling a risingplume of smoke that floated up from a pile of bicycletires they were burning. It occurred to me then that in adecade many of my university classmates, as futureenvironmental policymakers, might design a system thatdiscloses information and possess the intuition toimplement that system so future generations of farmerspause before starting such a fire. I remain optimistic thatsuch a day might come and the contradictions in the fieldwill be harder to find.

Eric Zusman is a doctoral candidate in the Department ofPolitical Science, University of California, Los Angeles. Heis currently in China conducting his dissertation fieldworkon SO

2 emission policy. He can be contacted at

[email protected]

Endnotes

1 The class uses a textbook edited by Ma Zhong from ChinesePeople’s University. Dr. Ma is one of the leading environmentaleconomists in China. Editor’s Note: See Dr. Ma’s discussion ofSO2 trading pilot projects in two Chinese cities in this issue ofChina Environment Series.

Looking for the China Environment WorkingGroup on the Internet?

Jennifer Turner, Senior Project Associate: [email protected] Thomas, Production Editor: [email protected]

World Wide Web: http://ecsp.si.edu/China.htm


COMMENTARIES

In the spring of 1973, the X* County PhosphateFertilizer Factory went into operation in Hebei

Province. The factory did not take any measures to preventpollution, so in the course of production, it emitted largeamounts of poisonous gases, which seriously polluted thefields of the X County Production Brigade at YCommune. The pollution killed or damaged hundredsof acres of crops. The residents of the communecomplained to their leaders, to the fertilizer factory, andto the X County Government, but their grievances wentunanswered. Finally, in April of 1973, residents tookmatters into their own hands. A crowd of people went tothe fertilizer factory and destroyed its electrical breakersin protest. The X County Party Commission declaredthe protest as a “counter revolutionary” act of sabotage.Several citizens were taken into custody, paraded aroundthe county for seven days, expelled from the party, andgiven prison terms.

For years afterward, the X County Production Brigadeappealed to provincial and national authorities to re-examine the case. Finally, in March of 1979, theEnvironmental Leading Group of the State Councilrequested that the Hebei Provincial EnvironmentalProtection Bureau and the People’s Court investigate theoutstanding appeal. The joint investigative group foundthe original punishment of the brigade comrades asinappropriate, so it reversed the ruling. The jailed residentswere released, reinstated in the party, and givencompensation for their hardship. However, governmentleaders criticized the residents for using unorthodoxmethods of expressing their grievances. Thus, after sixyears, the wrongful case of “counter revolutionarysabotage” was rectified (Huanjing Jiaofen Anjian Shili1989).

Over past two decades, increasing numbers ofChinese citizens have expressed their environmentalgrievances by complaining to local EnvironmentalProtection Bureaus (EPBs) and other governmentalagencies, or alternatively by initiating disputes and filinglawsuits. There are a number of reasons for this increasein complaints:1

1) Pollution levels have continued to rise and more

Environmental Disputes and Public Service Law:Past and Present

By Anna Brettell

people are being affected, so there are more peoplewith environmental grievances.2) The 1979 Environmental Protection Law (trial),and many more recent laws, legitimized enforcementactions and provided more legal protection to citizenswho make complaints or file suites; it is therefore nolonger “counter revolutionary” to take extrememeasures to protect one’s legal environmental rights.3) In urban centers, some governmental officialshave become more responsive to citizen complaints.4) In larger cities, Chinese leaders have actuallyencouraged citizens to complain because it helpsrelevant authorities to implement and enforceenvironmental policies and laws.5) In some areas, environmental education effortsand media stories have helped to increase citizenenvironmental awareness levels, so more people nowsee the damages caused by pollution not as“unavoidable by-product” of modernization, but asavoidable and “wrong.”

In many urban areas, these five factors interact tocreate the perception that complaints and disputes willsomehow make a difference. Some citizens are satisfied iftheir complaints remain just a part of the historical record.In many cases, citizen complaints are addressed anddisputes are resolved free of charge through administrativemediation by local EPB officials.

However, the complaint and dispute resolutionsystems have “built-in” problems that leave room for localprotectionism, corruption, and complacency. Sometimes,relevant authorities are too weak in relation to othergovernmental agencies to bring justice to a situation. It isoften difficult for citizens to get the attention of officialsat the next highest level of the administrative system.Upper level officials usually hand back environmentalcases to the authorities at the local level, despite citizenclaims that local authorities are unable or unwilling toresolve an environmental complaint or dispute. The courtsare often the “last resort,” even though since 1979 citizenslegally have been permitted to take an environmentaldispute to a court or to the local EPB. Citizens often lackthe understanding of the court system, hesitate to utilize

*Editor’s Note: To preserve the anonymity of the conflicting parties, specific location names are replaced with “X” and “Y.”


the courts for cultural reasons, or lack the financialresources to sue an offending industry, so the courts havenot always been a feasible last resort.

In 1999, a spirited individual created a non-profitorganization to help empower pollution victims in thecourts, called the Center for Legal Assistance to PollutionVictims (CLAPV), also known as the Environmental andNatural Resource Law Research and Service Center. Thiscenter, located in Beijing, receives about 100 calls permonth from Chinese citizens around the country whohave environmental grievances that, for one reason oranother, have not been resolved at the local level. Peoplecall this non-profit center, which is partially funded bythe Ford Foundation, to get free legal advice or to gethelp finding legal counsel. The center is the first, and sofar, the only one of its kind in China.

The director of CLAPV, Dr. Wang Canfa, a man ofboundless energy, created the center after he representedpollution victims in a court case, in which the victimslost millions of Chinese Yuan due to pollution damages,but only were compensated a few thousand Yuan. Thisinsufficient compensation occured despite the fact thatthe polluting enterprise involved had broken the law. Dr.Wang, a lawyer and a professor of law at the ChineseUniversity of Politics and Law, felt compelled to find away to help the increasing numbers of citizens harmedby pollution to receive adequate compensation for theirlosses. Dr. Wang wanted to intensify the pressure onenterprises to take the safety of their communities andenvironmental laws more seriously.

One current case now going through the first appealsprocess involves an orchard farmer from Inner Mongolia.The farmer, Mr. Han, first called CLAPV complainingthat his apple and pear trees had been killed in June of1998 because of an air pollution accident at an upwindcopper refinery. The desulfurization equipment at therefinery broke down, but the enterprise continuedproduction for several days, which allowed a large amountof smoke and ash emissions containing extremely highlevels of sulfur dioxide, as much as 46 times the regulatorystandard, to disperse over several farms and orchards inthe area. The local city government ordered aninvestigation into the accident. The environmentalmonitoring station confirmed that the levels of sulfurdioxide in the refinery’s emissions exceeded standards,even when the desulfurization equipment was functioningproperly. The investigators confirmed acute sulfur dioxidepollution damage at two of the closest orchards. However,investigators could not confirm that the trees in Mr. Han’sorchard died because of the pollution. Mr. Zhang, themanaging director of the polluting enterprise, thereforerefused to take responsibility for the death of Mr. Han’s

trees or to pay him any compensation because Mr. Han’sorchard was three kilometers away from the refinery,further than any of the other affected orchards.

In December of 1998, the copper refinery restartedoperations, but another sulfur dioxide pollution incidentpromptly closed it down again. This second accidentcompelled Mr. Han to contact the China Forestry ScienceInstitute to ask resident experts to examine the orchardto find out what had really killed his trees. The resultingreport supported the theory that sulfur dioxide, arsenic,and lead had caused Mr. Han’s trees to die. However, Mr.Zhang still refused to take responsibility or paycompensation. So, Mr. Han, with the assistance of theCenter for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims filed alawsuit in his city’s Middle People’s Court.

The ensuing court battle grew in scope and becamemore complicated as time went on. By the time courtactually convened in August of 2000, four different“expert examinations” of the damages to Mr. Han’sorchard had been conducted. Two of the evaluationsconcluded that there was a cause and effect relationshipbetween the pollution and the death of Mr. Han’s trees.The other two evaluations concluded that the refinerywas not responsible for the damage and therefore underno obligation to compensate Mr. Han. The last evaluation,which took place two years after the initial pollutionaccident in July of 2000, was requested by the city’sMiddle People’s Court and concluded that pollution hadnot caused the death and other damages to Mr. Han’strees. This last evaluation attributed the death of the treesto bad management, fertilizer and water deficiencies, weaktrees, insect infestations, dry rot, and other diseases.Largely because of this evaluation, the court ruled in favorof the defendant, Mr. Zhang. In an unusual judgment,the court ruled that Mr. Han had to pay all of the courtand expert evaluation costs.

Mr. Han, with the help of CLAPV, has recentlyappealed this case to the Inner Mongolian AutonomousPrefecture People’s High Court. Mr. Han’s lawyer claimsthat the middle court acted improperly by dismissing theForestry Science Institute’s expert evaluation, which heldthat there was a cause and effect relationship between thepollution accidents and the death of Mr. Han’s trees. Also,he claims that the evaluation requested by the MiddleCourt is full of inconsistencies and the Middle Court isbiased in favor of the defendant.

At this time, the outcome of this particular case isnot known, but the case does illustrate several interestingfacets of Chinese environmental dispute resolutionprocesses more generally. It is important that both partieswere compelled to back up their claims with scientificevidence. Each party provided the court with scientific


COMMENTARIES

evidence in equal amounts, specifically, each provided twoexpert evaluations. In China, science has much moreweight in determining the outcome of environmentaldispute cases than it has had in the past. The case, however,also illustrates that science is not always the objectivebringer of truth; science is politicized and used to justifylegal decisions. Despite the “messiness” the politicizationof science brings to environmental legal cases, it will forcethe sophistication of scientific methods at the local level.The case illustrates the expanding “monitoring” role ofthe media. Also important in this case, is the fact that anon-profit organization located in Beijing is involved ina local case in Inner Mongolia. It signals a strengtheningof non-governmental participation in Chinese society andnon-governmental oversight of local governments. Inother words, it marks the birth of public serviceenvironmental law in China. Lawyers who takeenvironmental cases in China do not have the luxury ofrealizing huge economic payoffs for their efforts as lawyerssometimes do in the United States, thus Dr. Wang’s successin helping to arrange legal assistance for victims ofpollution is especially noteworthy.

The center is becoming relatively well known inChina, however, many pollution victims do not yet knowabout the center. For instance, there is a large group offarmers in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province who have beeninvolved in an environmental dispute since the mid-1980sover air and water pollution from coal dust generated bythe Number Two Thermal Power Plant. These farmerscould use CLAPV’s assistance.2 The Taiyuan farmers claimthat the power plant dumped piles of coal dust next to ariver, which eventually contaminated their crop fields.They also claim air pollution emissions have killed ordamaged scores of crops. For years, the farmerscomplained about the pollution to the city EPB and othergovernment organizations. The authorities cleaned up theriver, but the plant did not pay any compensation to thefarmers. Continuing air pollution problems raisedtensions over the plant and in 1998, the farmers requestedthat the provincial EPB mediate the dispute. Theprovincial EPB tried to mediate the dispute, but the effortfell apart after the power plant refused to paycompensation to the farmers. The plant claimed it didnot have the money to pay compensation.

To this day, the Taiyuan Number Two Thermal PowerPlant dispute remains unresolved, but the farmerscontinue to request help from the provincial EPB. TheEPB representative says there is “meiyou banfa” (nothingcan be done), particularly since the plant is not a“zhongdian” (a priority) with the provincial government.The farmers have few options left to settle the problemthrough mediation or administrative means. The next step

would be for them to complain to the provincial levelPeople’s Congress or to the State EnvironmentalProtection Bureau in Beijing. The courts offer anotheroption, but the farmers say they do not have enoughmoney to file a lawsuit.

The farmers in Taiyuan could use a goodenvironmental public service lawyer, but efforts tointroduce them to the Center for Legal Assistance toPollution Victims have as of yet been unsuccessful.Although he is unknown to the farmers, Wang Canfa istheir advocate. Wang Canfa has a vision for CLAPV thatincludes strengthening the capacity of China’senvironmental protection and legal systems by holdingtraining workshops on environmental law enforcementfor relevant professionals, and promoting environmentalpublic service law by learning about environmentaldispute resolution processes in other countries and sharingthat information with lawyers in legal networksthroughout China.

Anna Brettell is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department ofGovernment at the University of Maryland. She can bereached at [email protected]

References

CLAPV Work Report. (November 2000). Beijing.

Huanjing Jiaofen Anjian Shili (Environmental Dispute CaseStudies). (1989). Wuhan, China: Wuhan University Press: 51-52.

Endnotes

1 For more information on local dispute resolution and localgovernment capacity in environmental policy implementationsee Abigail Jahiel, “Policy Implementation ThroughOrganizational Learning: The Case of Water Pollution Controlin China’s Reforming Socialist System,” 1994, Ph.D.Dissertation, University of Michigan; Jennifer Turner,“Authority Flowing Downwards? Local GovernmentEntrepreneurship in the Chinese Water Sector,” 1997, Ph.D.Dissertation, Indiana University; and Kevin J. O’Brien and LiLianjiang, 1995, “The Politics of Lodging Complaints in RuralChina,” The China Quarterly (1995): 756-83.

2 The author learned about the continuing dispute in Taiyuanfrom newspaper articles and interviews with environmentalprotection officials in Taiyuan in the year 2000; notes are onfile with the author.


Pictures from Green NGO andEnvironmental Journalist Forum

9-10 April 2001

Acting as an imaginary NGO, this group ofworkshop participants makes a pitch to theenvironmental journalists to cover theircampaign to save the Black-necked Cranes.From left to right: Chen Manli (Homemakers’Union and Foundation, Taiwan) Sun Dehui(Black-necked Crane Association, China), LinSheng Zong (Eco-Conservation Association,Taiwan), Sun Yan Jun (Tianjin People’s RadioStation, China), Lin Maw Nan (WildbirdFederation, Taiwan).

65 Green NGO staff and journalists from MainlandChina, Taiwan and Hong Kong attended thegroundbreaking forum in Hong Kong.

On the second day of the forum, Chang Hung Lin, GeneralSecretary from Taiwan’s largest environmental NGO, theSociety of Wilderness, co-chaired the NGO Capacity BuildingWorkshop with Lu Hongyan, the founder of the EnvironmentalVolunteers Association (Mainland China).


COMMENTARIES

Every October, on the Jade Dragon Mountain in Yunnan China, tens of thousands of wild flowerssprout in the high meadows before the snow melts. Spurtsof bright color enliven a stark white landscape at tenthousand feet above sea level. The sight would stop aphotographer in his tracks. I would not have witnessedthis annual wonder last winter had I not accepted aninvitation to attend an Earth Day environmentalconference in Beijing in April 2000. Likewise, I wouldnot have discovered the fledgling green movement inChina.

The conference was a gathering of Chineseenvironmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).One of most the unforgettable people I met at theconference was Yang Xin. Yang Xin’s extensive facial hairmade him look quite bohemian, an appropriate look fora man striving to save the highly endangered Tibetanantelopes. Yang established an NGO, Green River, tostudy the habitat of this elusive animal in the Tibetanplateau. The Tibetan antelopes are slaughtered by machineguns for their extremely valuable wool. Six years ago, Yangheard a story about an anti-poaching patrolman who wasgunned down by eighteen poachers. The patrolman’scorpse was found frozen in place in the sub-zero weatherwith his handgun pointing out at the enemies. Yang hada conversion experience after learning of this heroic tale,and he began traveling around the country to preach hisdream to any willing listeners. I was a very willing listenerindeed and I sat there sobbing while he was telling hisstory.

So what is his dream? He plans to build a monitoringstation and conduct scientific studies of glacier recession,desertification, water pollution, and deforestation in theTibetan plateau. He will begin his studies in July of 2001and in five years will have a baseline for scientists,environmentalists, and the government to utilize indevising conservation strategies for this area. Hisundertaking is an ambitious, holistic approach to savingan endangered species. I wondered why Yang’s work hasnot gotten more notice from western foundations. Thereason is simple: he does not speak English and he is inChengdu, far away from Beijing, which is the city thatattracts the attention of most foreign funders.Environmental activists in China who do not speakEnglish and are not based in Beijing have little chance ofbeing known by the western environmental community.It should not be that difficult to find a solution to this

Clues and Cues

By Humphrey Wou

tiny dilemma.Seven months later, I was back in China again. Far

from Beijing this time, I was on a one-man crusade tolocate hardworking and motivated individuals like Yang,who possess brilliant visions and whose stories remainuntold in the West. I arrived in the province of Yunnan,armed with only two phone numbers and noappointments. Therefore, I crashed meetings and madecold calls. The first meeting I invited myself to was acombined effort of the Dutch and German governments,The Nature Conservancy, and some Chineseenvironmentalists (many were governmentrepresentatives) to create an umbrella network on theInternet. Although I was grateful for the contacts I madeat this meeting, no one was able to point me to anygrassroots NGOs. Dead-end.

Luckily, one of the two phone numbers I hadbelonged to a Chinese American, Andrea Quong. Shewas working in Yunnan doing her own interviews withsome environmental NGOs. She had just returned froma visit to a group that operates in a mountain region toprotect the black-necked cranes. These endangered birdswould winter in the mountain region and eat the cropsin the fields. Local farmers did not know these birds werea protected species and shot them as they would wolves,foxes, or any other pests. This slaughter of the craneswould have continued had a nature photographer notdiscovered the plight of these birds two years ago. Hepulled a dozen friends together and formed “TheVolunteers’ Association for Black-Necked CraneProtection in the Zhaotong Prefecture of China” (Thenames of Chinese NGOs are their mission statements!).This group buys corn to feed the birds and educates thelocals to care for them. Moreover, they have set up clinicsto treat injured birds; they produce a newsletter that looksbetter than the local papers; and they bring visitors onbird-watching trips. The dozen founders have expandedto one hundred and forty due-paying members. Thisgroup is a great success story! But, when I startedcalculating the membership income versus the expensesof buying corn for bird feed, I realized some memberswere making up the difference out of their own pockets.I called one of the leaders and asked a few more questionsand expressed my support. Because of the limitations oftime and distance, I could not visit them, but I have akeen appreciation for what these non-computer savvy andnon-English speaking folks are doing for the cranes.


Two days and many interviews later, and againthrough Andrea’s recommendation, I met another lonegreen warrior, Wang Xiao Gang, at a French café. He hada shaved head, a cropped goatee, and his wiry frame wasbursting with energy. He reminded me of the legendaryChinese hero the Monkey King. In spite of the manyincredible things he later told me, I found him delightfullymodest. When we met that day Wang had not yetregistered his green work as an NGO. However, the lackof official status had not prevented him from doing whathe thought he ought to do for the environment. Forexample, when he saw that a new airport was scaring awaymigratory birds, Wang approached some local farmersand suggested they build a wetland as a bird sanctuary.He picked up a shovel and showed them how to create asmall dam to fill the land with water. Birds started comingafter a year. When he saw how the Bai fishermen, animpoverished minority, were over fishing a mountain lakeand earning only U.S. $2.50 per day, Wang helped bringin foreign tourists. Now the fishermen can supplementtheir income by performing their traditional songs anddances for the foreign visitors. Ultimately, Wang’s maingoal is to create a 32-hectare protection park in a mountainarea in Yunnan Province to save the 167 endemic speciesand more than 600 rare species of plants from extinction.There will be a botanical garden and a cultural museumto make up for the lost income from logging and wildherb harvesting. Since returning to the United States, Ihave learned he has registered as a French NGO, becausehis French girlfriend and partner believed that it wouldbe more beneficial to have a European registry. Nothingthis guy ever does is conventional.

Although I was slightly disappointed with the quantityof NGOs I found on my trip, the quality of theirendeavors far exceeded my expectations. I left Yunnanwith a great sense of accomplishment, and I owe it all toone person, Andrea Quong. Andrea was my medium, orconduit. She channeled her discoveries and connectedme with the right folks. If not for Andrea’s tips, I couldnot have related the stories of these grassroots groups sincethey are not even on the radar screens of the Chineseenvironmental community. Another clue tounderstanding Chinese NGOs: messengers are crucial tothe message, and obviously not all messengers are equal.Andrea was able to give me exact leads and she did nothave an agenda to promote. Maybe one way to stimulatethe growth of grassroots activities is to construct aninfrastructure of such conduits.

While my intention was to locate non-Englishspeaking grassroots groups far away from the Chinesecapital, one of my most fascinating discoveries was in

Beijing. Ma Jun is an inspiring English-speaking journalistwho works as an editor of the South China Morning Post(SCMP) Web site in the Beijing bureau. In 1999, he wrotean impressive book called China Water Crisis (ZhongguoShuiweiji), in which he blends ancient and contemporaryhistory, scientific studies, water law and policies, poetry,and human stories into a coherent thesis on China’sgrowing water dilemmas. The breadth and the depth ofhis knowledge were mind-boggling to me. I had expectedthat meeting him would be a highlight of my trip, butdid not know just how rewarding it would turn out tobe. Ma, a conservatively dressed, tall, vibrant man, waseasy to talk to. We soon began to discuss what he wasgoing to do after the success of his book. He explained tome that he was not interested in forming an NGO. Hehad been very busy setting up his SCMP office, but withhis work calming down, he believed he would be able todo more with the book. Sure enough, a month after myinterview with him, I learned he three TV producers hadcontacted him with interest in making documentaries ofhis book. He was also making plans for his first visit tothe United States in January 2001. Perhaps the book andTV shows will stimulate awareness in China onsustainable water practices.

I have told the stories of three men, Yang, Wang andMa, the brightest and best of those I interviewed. All ofthem have clear visions of what they want to do. Yangand Wang are registered NGOs and Ma is just a lonegunman. They are like athletes in a race: Yang is in thefirst stretch of a long race; Wang is waiting for the gun tosound; and Ma is just warming up and is not even sure ifhe wants to be there.

My journey to China rewarded me with many friendsand great insights. Yet, instead of coming home withanswers, I brought back more questions. If we in thewestern environmental community want to help China’sfledging green movement, how can we make the greatestimpact? There are Chinese green groups that impact largepopulations as the ones in Beijing do. Other groups workout in the wilds with fragile ecosystems and ruralcommunities like those in Yunnan. It is heartening to seehow the environmental movement in China is a mixtureof young, energetic spontaneous groups and some matureand well-directed groups. What can we do to ensure long-term survival of NGOs in a country that has fewphilanthropic institutions? This is a complex and perhapsimpossible question to answer today. It would be moreuseful to adopt a short-term focus and ask how we canlend immediate practical assistance to green groups, suchas financial support, capacity building, informationalresources or cross-cultural exchange. At this moment, even


COMMENTARIES

wiring money into China is no small feat, not to mentionquestions of financial accountability, the language gap,cultural differences, and work-style variance.

Perhaps the harder question is whether modernizingor westernizing China’s grass roots could be potentiallydestructive. An old Chinese fable describes an eager farmboy who tries to hurry the growth of his planting bypulling on the sprouting grains. The conclusion of thestory is easy to guess. However the application of the fable’slesson is not always clear. How do we help buildconfidence and capacity, rather than big egos; foundations,rather than pedestals inside the NGO community in

China? How do we avoid the temptation of trying to beact like Miracle-Gro? The environmental grassroots peopleI talked to were a wonderful mosaic of enthusiasticvisionaries, like wild flowers springing up after winter.Can we take cues from them, without adding, subtracting,categorizing, and shaping them into a uniform bouquet?

Humphrey Wou is based in San Francisco and is a passionatetraveler who has a keen interest in grassrootsenvironmentalism. He can be contacted [email protected]

The editor of the China Environment Series invites submissions for feature articles (20-25 double-spaced pages) and commentaries (2-4 double-spaced pages) for the 2002 issue.

Feature article themes of particular interest include:• Environmental and/or energy financing in China• Environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and/or quasi-NGOs activities in China• Impact of WTO on China’s agricultural sector and/or environment

Authors wishing to propose feature articles focusing on other topics relating to environmental andenergy issues in China or how these issues impact U.S.-China relations should not hesitate to submit aproposal.

For the newly added Commentaries/Notes from the Field section of the China Environment Series wewelcome any topic relating to environmental or energy issues in China, Taiwan, or Hong Kong.Commentaries based on current field research are of particular interest.

Feature articles and commentary proposal abstracts of not more than 250 words for are due September25, 2001. Please email proposal abstracts to Jennifer Turner at [email protected] or fax to 202-691-4184.

Authors will be given guidelines after proposals are accepted. Final papers and commentaries will bedue November 27, 2001.

Call for PapersFeature Articles and Commentaries for the

Woodrow Wilson Center’s China Environment Series Issue 5


Over the last two decades, environmentalnongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Taiwan

have made tremendous progress in raising the profile ofenvironmental issues. The roots of Taiwan’s organizedenvironmental movement go back to the early 1980s andare intertwined with the development of the democracymovement. During this time period, the ruling NationalistParty (the KMT) heavily restricted political activity.Ironically, environmental and social issues were viewedas non-political, so people working on these issues couldmeet and organize with some degree of safety. As a result,many of the people in the Taiwanese democracymovement also became involved in environmentalactivities. The early environmental movement became aloose coalition of individuals representing a broad rangeof social and political concerns. Notably, this coalitionlater served as a key part of the foundation of theDemocratic People’s Party (DPP) in the early 1990s.

Since the lifting of martial law in 1987, the list ofregistered environmental groups in Taiwan has grown toover 300 organizations. Most Taiwanese NGO groupsonly have one to three full time staff who are supportedby a core of volunteers, including academics who providetechnical expertise. A handful, such as the Homemaker’sUnion, the Wild Bird Society, and the Society ofWilderness have several thousand members, but mostgroups do not have a large membership base. In the earlydays of the environmental movement, organized activitiesfocused on protests of polluting factories and maintaineda confrontational flavor into the mid-1990s. As part ofsuch campaigns, NGOs have joined together to formumbrella groups or networks based around specific issues.Examples include the coalition established to fight againstthe fourth nuclear power plant and the EcologicalProtection Alliance. This alliance is an umbrellaorganization of over twenty NGOs that have joinedtogether to organize on conservation issues. Today,Taiwanese NGOs focus on organizing activities such asrecycling drives, organic agriculture exhibits, or protestsrather than think tank-style public policy research. A fewenvironmental NGOs actively lobby on proposedlegislation, but typically do so in an ad hoc fashion asopposed to part of a long-term research and lobbyingagenda.

Entering into the new millennium, environmentalgroups now face a substantially changed social andpolitical environment. Democratization in Taiwan has

The Changing Context for Taiwanese Environmental NGOs

By Sean Gilbert

generally made individual government agencies weakerand it is therefore harder for environmental NGOs totarget a single agency and demand change. Equallyimportant, the middle-class has emerged as a major forcein politics. While environmental quality is a concern,many voters also want stability and are oftenuncomfortable with protest tactics that have beencommon among many of the green groups. Governmentagencies are increasingly sensitive to public sentiment,and are responsive to pressures by NGOs to the extentthey are perceived to be in step with voter concerns.

In the new political environment in which voteropinion is the key political driver, the greatest challengefacing the NGO community is democratizing theenvironmental movement. For the last twenty years, theNGO environmental movement has been led by a smallcore constituency spread across Taiwan. Green NGOsnow need to begin to communicate more effectively withthe center of Taiwanese society on a national level and tofind ways to involve them in NGO activities. Somegroups, such as the Society of Wilderness that has designedits program around interactive educational activitiesincluding lectures, eco-tourism, and volunteer-ledprojects, have already moved in this direction. Likewise,several of the large groups in the South have chosen todecrease their protest activities and focus on publiceducation to build a political base.

In addition to expanding their social mandate andestablishing themselves as speaking for the “center” ofTaiwanese society, environmental NGOs must face twoother key challenges in the future: finding increasedfunding and building their professional capacities. Withregards to funding, most environmental organizations relyon a combination of government projects andcontributions from a small group of core members, andare therefore limited in the type and range of activitiesthat they can undertake. Despite the large number offoundations in Taiwan, very few offer money to NGOsand funding is typically directed towards those with aneducational focus rather than advocacy objectives.Corporate donations are a highly controversial issue formany groups.

Another key goal for environmental NGOs isbuilding their professional capacities. Several senior NGOleaders see a need to “become more professional” in orderto create more effective, sustainable organizations withbroader outreach capacity. The term has different meaning


COMMENTARIES

for everyone, but areas that have been raised include:internal management/administration, technical expertise(such as engineering and environmental science), andpublic relations/communications.

In less than two decades, environmental NGOs havemade tremendous strides to create a broad range of groupsand to raise consciousness regarding the environmentwithin Taiwan. As these NGOs move their organizationsinto the mainstream and strengthen their capacity, theywill be creating a more promising future for the

environmental movement in Taiwan. Nevertheless, thesegreen groups will have to enter uncharted territory as theyseek to build on their progress of the last 15 years.

Sean Gilbert is an environmental consultant who lived inTaiwan for seven years and worked extensively with thenonprofit community. He can be contacted at:[email protected]

Rural Development Institute

Rural land tenure rights and practices are important determinants of both economic development andsustainable land use practices. In China, where nearly three-quarters of the population resides in ruralareas and agricultural land remains the most important asset for the vast majority of rural households,land tenure rights have undergone massive changes over the past twenty years. The first stage of China’srecent rural land tenure reforms was marked by the transition from communal farms to family farmswith the introduction of the Household Responsibility System (HRS) in the 1980s. The HRS reformsled to substantial increases in overall agricultural productivity and in the living standards of Chinesefarmers. Nevertheless, land use rights to collectively owned land have continued to remain short-termand insecure. This land tenure insecurity has discouraged farmers from making investments to increaseproductivity and to engage in environmentally sustainable farming practices.

In recent years, the Chinese government has identified rural land tenure insecurity as one of the mostimportant constraints to rural development, and has initiated a second round of rural land tenure reformswith the adoption of the 1998 Land Management Law. The goal of this massive reform effort is toprovide China’s nearly 200 million farm households with secure, long-term and clearly defined legalrights to their land.

Under a grant from the World Bank Institutional Development Fund, the Rural Development Institute(RDI) and the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC) have provided technicalassistance to Chinese legislators and policymakers in support of these rural land tenure reforms. Legaland policy recommendations have been developed on the basis of household-based rural fieldworkconducted by RDI and DRC researchers throughout China, as well as analysis of comparative approachesto rural land tenure reform. In current projects, RDI will provide training to local officials on theimplementation of rural land tenure reforms. Subsequently, research results will be disseminated as partof a national symposium to be held in Beijing. (Editor’s Note: Summaries of RDI’s four projects can befound in this publication’s NGO inventory)

RDI’s work in China is coordinated by RDI Staff Attorney Brian Schwarzwalder. Mr. Schwarzwaldercan be reached at: [email protected]. The RDI Web site is http://www.rdiland.org.


An environmental group’s massive letter-writing campaign forces the government to ban logging in

an endangered species’ habitat. The group returns severalmonths later and discovers the logging has continued. Itsmembers call in an investigative television news program,which broadcasts the story on national TV and catchesthe attention of the nation’s leader. Annoyed, the leaderdemands the logging stopped, and the unique habitat issaved.

This happened in China, where supposedly the newsmedia is just a government mouthpiece. The storyinvolved the golden monkey in the southwestern provinceof Yunnan. The environmental group Friends of Naturepersuaded “Focus,” a prominent national television show,to do the story. Premier Zhu Rongji saw it, andimmediately ordered a halt on the logging activities.

The volume and quality of environmental reportinghas been increasing significantly over the past five yearsin China. Television and print media throughout thecountry more regularly feature in-depth environmentalcoverage. The stories range from citizens suing the localgovernment over lack of environmental law enforcementto worries about exposure from illegal zinc mining andthe impact of industrialization in rural areas. These storiesare now primetime and front page daily news in China.The Chinese news media are emerging as one of theworld’s greenest.

A survey conducted by Friends of Nature, the groupbehind the golden monkey drama, discovered that morethan 47,000 environmental stories were printed in 75 ofChina’s newspapers in 1999. On average, each newspaperfeatured more than two environmental articles a day whilesome papers even had separate environmental sections.

Two newspapers in China are devoted exclusively tocovering the environmental protection and pollutionissues. The China Environmental News, the official paperof the China’s State Environmental ProtectionAdministration, comes out six days a week. It has acirculation of more than 300,000 and a staff of morethan 500 journalists. The Green China Times, affiliatedwith the Forestry Ministry, reports on forests, biodiversity,grasslands, and natural resource management in China.The Green China Times has more than 100,000 readersand like the China Environmental News, most of thepaper’s readers work in government and research centersthat focus on environmental protection. Both of these

Let a Thousand Muckrakers Bloom

By Ray Cheung

newspapers are experimenting with weekend editionsaimed at the general public, which will eventually expandtheir readership beyond government agencies.

So what has sparked this popularity of environmentaljournalism in China? Moreover, why is the governmentnot only allowing investigative reporting onenvironmental issues but also encouraging it? The answerto the first question is simple. More than 20 years ofrelentless economic growth—an average annual rate of10 percent—has pushed China’s environmental problemsinto a crisis. China now has nine of the world’s ten mostpolluted cities—each regularly has air pollution levels thatexceed by tenfold the standard maximum proposed bythe World Health Organization. Nearly 700 millionChinese lack access to clean water. China’s forests aredisappearing at the rate of 5,000 square kilometers everyyear. Nearly 28 percent of China’s landmass has turnedinto desert and is useless for farming. China also will soonbe the world’s leading emitter of global greenhouse gases,overtaking the United States. No one in China can escapethe reality of the environmental crisis. People everywhere,from the rural peasant to the new urban professional arecomplaining and demanding action. Most importantly,they want information.

Paralleling these trends of environmental degradationin China have been major changes in the infrastructureof the Chinese news media. The government is currentlyprivatizing even more of the inefficient state sectors tofree financial capital for investment and growth,particularly as China edges closer to admission into theWorld Trade Organization. Guaranteed funding for manygovernment sectors—the Iron Rice Bowl of the Chinesesocialist system—has ended. Notably, the news mediasector was one of the first forced to become self sufficientand competitive. This new financial responsibilitybrought some editorial independence and license to newsorganizations.

Combine these forces with the seriousness of China’senvironmental problems, and it is easy to see why theChinese news media are heavy with environmental news.But economics and environment quality alone do notexplain completely why the Chinese news media havebeen able not to only break the bounds of governmentcontrol but to become an environmental watchdog. Thethird and main reason is political.

Government corruption is the biggest threat to the


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legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party. To regainits legitimacy, the party has launched highly publiccrusades to expose and eliminate the party’s so-calledtainted elements. From the village party chief to provincialgovernor, party officials have been caught and evenexecuted as examples to other would-be defrauders. Thehighest official to be executed was Chen Kejie, the DeputyChairman of the National People’s Congress, thelegislative body of the Chinese government. In a highlypublicized trial, Chen was convicted for taking theequivalent of 5 million U.S. dollars in bribes.

The Chinese public, however, is still not convincedof the party’s sincerity to purify its ranks, so theCommunist Party has looked for solutions and foundone in the news media. Instead of simply using the newsmedia as a propaganda tool, the party-state leaders allowthem to expose the party’s miscreants. By permitting this,the party believes it is protecting itself and is proving thatonly certain elements of the party are tainted and corrupt.It is these corrupt elements that are thus culpable for manyenvironmental problems.

Though the Chinese news media have been givenlicense to investigate some environmental stories andgovernment corruption, limits remain. While local orregional misdeeds are fair game, stories critical of thecentral government or the party are not allowed. Coverage

of such deeply political issues is controversial. Forexample, reporting critically on the Three Gorges Damproject is still prohibited. One story notably unreportedin China is that the vote to approve the Three GorgesDam was the narrowest victory ever in the CommunistParty’s history. Issues with national sovereigntyimplications, such as the Kyoto Protocol calling onnations to reduce their carbon emissions, are also off-limits.

China’s news media has a long way to go beforebecoming truly independent. However, it is changing fastwith environmental reporting leading the way. As L.P.Lau, editor of chief of the popular newsmagazineZhongguo Zhoukan remarked in a recent interview: “Onenvironmental issues, the Chinese government, media andsociety have common interests and goals. Even thoughthere are political sensitivities, environment can be thebuilding ground for trust between the government andthe media…There is much to be optimistic about.”

Ray Cheung is coordinator of environmental programs atthe University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media StudiesCentre. A version of this article will appear in the Spring2001 issue of SEJournal. The author can be contacted [email protected]

The Woodrow Wilson Center awards academic year residential fellowships to individuals from anycountry with outstanding project proposals on national and/or international issues –topics that intersectwith questions of public policy or provide the historical framework to illumine policy issues ofcontemporary importance. The application deadline is October 1, 2001. For eligibility requirementsand application guidelines please contact:

The Scholar Selection and Services Office at Tel: 202-691-4170; Fax: 202-691-4001; E-mail:[email protected] or visit our Web site to download an application at

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Charge to the Bush Administration: U.S. Interests in ... · United States. The energy relations between the United States and major industrializing countries also urgently need attention