Table Of ContentChina’s Environmental Crisis
Environmental Politics
And Theory
Our current environmental crisis cannot be solved by technological
innovation alone. The premise of this Series is that the environmental
challenges we face today are, at their root, political crises involving
political values.
Growing public consciousness of the environmental crisis and its
human and nonhuman impacts exemplifi ed by the worldwide urgency
and political activity associated with the consequences of climate
change make it imperative to study and achieve a sustainable and
socially just society.
The Series collects, extends, and develops ideas from the burgeon-
ing empirical and normative scholarship spanning many disciplines
with a global perspective. It addresses the need for social change
from the hegemonic, consumer capitalist society in order to realize
environmental sustainability and social justice.
The Series Editor is Joel Jay Kassiola, Professor of Political Science
and Dean of The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at San
Francisco State University.
China’s Environmental Crisis: Domestic and Global Political Impacts
and Responses
Edited by Joel Jay Kassiola and Sujian Guo
China’s Environmental Crisis
Domestic And Global Political
Impacts And Responses
Edited by
Joel Jay Kassiola and Sujian Guo
CHINA’S ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS
Copyright © Joel Jay Kassiola and Sujian Guo, 2010.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-10664-2
All rights reserved.
First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States – a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest
of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan
Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998,
of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above
companies and has companies and representatives throughout
the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United
States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-29026-0 ISBN 978-0-230-11436-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230114364
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
China’s environmental crisis : domestic and global political impacts
and responses / edited by Joel Jay Kassiola and Sujian Guo.
p. cm. — (Environmental politics and theory)
1. Environmental policy—China. 2. Economic development—
China—Environmental aspects. 3. Social change—China.
4. Political participation—China. I. Kassiola, Joel Jay, 1945–
II. Guo, Sujian, 1957–
HC430.E5.C435 2010
363.700951—dc22 2010014497
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by MPS Limited, A Macmillan Company
First edition: November 2010
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Contributors vii
Introduction: China’s Environmental Crisis—A Global
Crisis with Chinese Characteristics: From Confucius to
Cell Phones 1
Joel Jay Kassiola and Sujian Guo
Part I Current Ecological Conditions and Public Policies
in China: Desertifi cation, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
and Food Security 11
1 Desertifi cation in China: Problems with Policies
and Perceptions 13
Hong Jiang
2 Network Public Management and the Challenge of
Biodiversity Management in China 41
Sara R. Jordan
3 Changing Climate? China’s New Interest in Global
Climate Change Negotiations 61
Wei Liang
4 Environmental Degradation and Food Security Policies
in China 85
Jerry McBeath and Jenifer Huang McBeath
Part II The Formation and Policy Infl uences of
ENGOs (Environmental Non-Governmental
Organizations) in China 121
5 State and Society in China’s Environmental Politics 123
Björn Alpermann
6 Responding to Climate Disaster: The Cosmopolitan
Challenge to China 153
Paul G. Harris
vi Contents
Part III Environmentally Caused Social Change in
China: New Media Technologies and Traditional
Confucian Values Updated 177
7 Digital Power: Public Participation in an Environmental
Controversy 179
Yanmin Yu and Fanxu Zeng
8 Confucianizing Modernity and “Modernizing”
Confucianism: Environmentalism and The Need for a
Confucian Positive Argument for Social Change 195
Joel Jay Kassiola
Index 219
Contributors
Björn Alpermann, Assistant Professor for Contemporary Chinese
Studies at University of Würzburg, Germany. He received his MA
degree in Modern Chinese Studies, Political Science, and E conomics
and Ph.D. in Modern Chinese Studies, both from University of
Cologne. His fi elds of research include China’s rural politics, espe-
cially village governance, China’s political economy as well as social
stratifi cation and political culture. Professor Alpermann has published
several scholarly articles on these topics, e.g., in The China Journal,
Journal of Contemporary China, and the Journal of Chinese Political
Science, and authored two monographs The State in the Village: Village
Self-Administration in China (in German, 2001) and China’s Cotton
Industry: Economic Transformation and State Capacity (Routledge,
2010).
Sujian Guo, Professor in the Department of Political Science and
Director of Center for U.S.-China Policy Studies at San Francisco
State University. He holds concurrent appointments as Associate
Dean and Distinguished Professor of Fudan Institute for Advanced
Study in Social Sciences at Fudan University. He is Editor-in-Chief of
the Journal of Chinese Political Science, Associate Editor-in-Chief
of the Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Series Editor
of Rowman & Littlefi eld-Lexington’s Chinese political studies, and
former President of Association of Chinese Political Studies. He
received his MA degree from Peking University and Ph.D. from the
University of Tennessee. His research interests include Chinese/Asian
politics, U.S.-China relations, communist and postcommunist studies,
democratic transitions, and the political economy of East and South-
east Asia. He has published more than 30 academic articles both in
English and Chinese. His authored and edited books include Thirty
Years of China-US Relations: Analytical Approaches and Contemporary
Issues (2010); Environmental Protection Policy and Experience in the
U.S. and China’s Western Regions (2010); Greater China in an Era
of Globalization (2009); Harmonious World and Chinese New Foreign
viii Contributors
Policy (2008); China in Search of a Harmonious Society (2008); Chal-
lenges Facing Chinese Political Development (2007); New Dimensions
of Chinese Foreign Policy (2007); China in the Twenty-First Century:
Challenges and Opportunities (2007); The Political Economy of Asian
Transition from Communism (2006); China’s ‘Peaceful Rise’ in the
21st Century: Domestic and International Conditions (2006); and Post-
Mao China: From Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism? (2000).
Paul G. Harris, Chair Professor of Global and Environmental Studies
at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, where he is Head of the
Department of Social Sciences, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre
for Governance and Citizenship, and a member of the Department
of Science and Environmental Studies. He is author of International
Equity and Global Environmental Politics (Ashgate), World Ethics
and Climate Change (Edinburgh University Press) and over 100
scholarly journal articles and book chapters. He is editor of Climate
Change and American Foreign Policy (St. Martin’s Press/Palgrave
Macmillan), The Environment, International Relations, and U.S.
Foreign Policy (Georgetown University Press), International Environ-
mental Cooperation (University Press of Colorado), Global Warming
and East Asia (Routledge), Confronting Environmental Change in
East and Southeast Asia (United Nations University Press/Earthscan),
Europe and Global Climate Change (Edward Elgar), Environmental
Change and Foreign Policy (Routledge), Climate Change and Foreign
Policy (Routledge), and The Politics of Climate Change (Routledge).
He is coeditor of The Global Politics of AIDS (Lynne Rienner).
Hong Jiang, Associate Professor of Geography at the University of
Hawaii (Manoa). Her research focuses on cultural geography and
the environment in China. She has done extensive research in Inner
Mongolia, where she explored issues of land use and ecological
changes from cultural and political perspectives. Currently her work
involves discursive analyses of China’s environmental policies, percep-
tions of the environment, and attitudes toward nature. She received
her Ph.D. from Clark University (MA), and has published extensively
on China’s environment. Her articles have appeared in journals such
as Annals of Association of American Geographers, World Development,
and Geoforum, and in publicly accessible magazines and newspapers.
Sara R. Jordan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics &
Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong. She received
his doctorate from Texas A&M University. Her teaching and research
specialties are in ethics and public management, with area specialties
Contributors ix
in academic research ethics and civil service ethics. Her most recent
manuscript Global Ethics and Global Governance is available through
Baylor University Press.
Joel J. Kassiola, Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
and Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University. He
received his MA and Ph.D. degrees from the Political Philosophy
Program at Princeton University. His research program after several
publications in various political theory themes: the conduct of nor-
mative inquiry, politics and literature, the justifi cation for affi rmative
action, political violence, turned to the intersection of the environ-
mental crisis, political theory, and modernity about 30 years ago. He
published one of the fi rst books in the emerging fi eld of environmental
political theory in 1990: The Death of Industrial Civilization (SUNY
Press), and more recently, edited Explorations in Environmental Politi-
cal Theory (M. E. Sharpe, 2003). He has published several articles on
the nature of environmental political theory and environmental ethics.
Most recently, he has published an article in the fl agship political sci-
ence journal published by the American Political Science Association
on the teaching of Introductory Political Theory courses, and article
on the need for MA Universities to have their faculty conduct research
in order to be excellent teachers in the twenty-fi rst century. His most
recent research has turned to China’s political thought and develop-
ment pertaining to green political theory, environmental policy, and
China’s development. His article titled “The Dilemma of Western
Industrial Civilization and China’s Path in the 21st Century” is pub-
lished in Challenges Facing Chinese Political Development (Rowman &
Littlefi eld-Lexington, 2007). He is an editor and a contributor of a
book titled China’s Environmental Crisis: Domestic and Global Politi-
cal Impacts and Responses to be published by Palgrave in 2010.
Wei Liang, Assistant Professor in the School of International Policy
Management at the Monterrey Institute of International Studies.
Her research interests include international political economy of East
Asia, international trade negotiation and global governance. She is
the author of a number of journal articles and book chapters on
China’s trade and climate change policy, Asian regionalism, China’s
FTA negotiation and WTO dispute resolution, and the role played
by emerging powers in global governance. Her most recent publica-
tions include “Primacy of Power: Regulatory Battles for Promoting
National Standards in China,” in China Rules: Globalization and
Political Transformation, ed. Ilan Alon, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009;
“China: Globalization and the Emergence of a New Status Quo
