{"id":286,"date":"2011-11-19T06:52:18","date_gmt":"2011-11-19T11:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/?p=286"},"modified":"2011-11-20T06:00:21","modified_gmt":"2011-11-20T11:00:21","slug":"environment-and-governance-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/2011\/11\/19\/environment-and-governance-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Environment and Governance in China"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A Beijing Ring Road<\/p><\/div>\n

Last week in Beijing, I felt the pollution in my lungs every time I stepped outside.\u00c2\u00a0 The pedestrians and bicyclists who passed me often wore medical masks.<\/p>\n

They aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the only ones concerned: on November 16, for example, the China Daily newspaper reported on climate changes that are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inflicting great losses on China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s agricultural production,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d including by facilitating the spread of insects, and leading to rising sea levels along China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coasts (80 millimeters over the last three decades).\u00c2\u00a0 China is counting on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153green industries\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to add 10.58 million Chinese jobs by 2015, and has just shut down 155 coal-fired boilers in two central Beijing districts where pollution prevents some residents from opening their windows for several months each year.<\/p>\n

But what I find most interesting is how people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frustration with the pollution that is accompanying China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rapid industrial growth is pushing the government to adopt more responsive political mechanisms.\u00c2\u00a0 The Communist Party legitimizes its rule through stability and economic growth, and both are threatened if people are protesting the destruction of their crops or drinking water in the streets because they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think their political leaders will listen to their spoken complaints.\u00c2\u00a0 (For more on this idea, I recommend Susan L. Shirk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s China: Fragile Superpower<\/a>.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the reason I give for the fact that the central government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s environmental protection campaigns are no longer going to judge themselves solely on whether they are meeting government-set targets.\u00c2\u00a0 From now on, they are also going to take public opinion into account, if a new proposal from the Ministry of Environmental Protection takes effect.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Smokestacks in the Chinese countryside<\/p><\/div>\n

It turns out, however, that the Chinese government isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the only entity which Chinese citizens are pushing to be more responsive.\u00c2\u00a0 American enterprises are on that list as well.\u00c2\u00a0 Apple happens to be near the top, because it has consistently ducked local questions about the heavy metal sludge, toxic gases, and other pollutants released by its suppliers.\u00c2\u00a0 Local organizations, however, think change is possible.\u00c2\u00a0 This month Apple finally met with delegates from five Chinese organizations that have released a report on its supply chain.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We appreciate the large step Apple took away from dodging its duty and toward attaching importance to this issue,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Feng Yongfeng, the Beijing-based founder of one of the organizations, is quoted as saying.\u00c2\u00a0 Said the executive director of another of the groups: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[W]e hope the company will play a role in world leadership and assume its social responsibilities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Those are the types of words we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re used to hearing from Americans.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems that as China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s economy (and the threats to it) starts to rival ours, so does its people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s expectations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A stone in the gardens of the Wild Goose Pagoda, Xian<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week in Beijing, I felt the pollution in my lungs every time I stepped outside.\u00c2\u00a0 The pedestrians and bicyclists who passed me often wore medical masks. They aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the only ones concerned: on November 16, for example, the China Daily newspaper reported on climate changes that are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inflicting great losses on China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s agricultural production,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[71,70,68,72,74,69,73,75,76],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}