Beyond red and gold: environmental governance in China

This thesis is concerned with the question as to how China governs its environment. It focuses on the process and manner of managing the country's environmental affairs in which the actors include but transcend government, encompassing the whole of society. The study offers a pragmatic diagnosis of environmental governance (EG) within the Chinese context, giving unique insights to the EG problem with an in-depth analysis of its root causes, and hence devising alternative ways for endeavours to protect the environment to be assessed and thought about. Due to the nature of the research question and the reality of EG in China, the research methodology is based on a case study, associated with documentary and interview approaches. To conduct the research diagnosing Chinese EG status, three concrete steps were taken, comprising an initial theoretical framework and finally an analysis of a case study and its ongoing activities and subsequent outcomes. In between, an elaboration of the multiple Chinese contexts for EG are presented, i.e., key political, social and economic aspects, and institutional and administrative developments for governing the environment in China together with non-state variables in relation to governance practice. At the theoretical level, this thesis is informed by the academic literature of contemporary studies on governance in terms of conceptualising EG. A new EG theorisation is constructed, which converts the holistic nature of EG research into a conceptualisation including seven key elements, namely: accommodation, predictability, accountability, participation, communication, transparency, and specialisation (scientific expertise), all in combination with country-specific considerations of political, administrative and socio-economic contexts. Through a case study, the EG process is revealed through newspaper reports, wenjian (official documents) and interviews. The case study is based on a landmark January 2000 event in relation to the Nanjiang Industrial Park in Sihui, a county city located in the Pearl River Delta Region of the Chinese Province of Guangdong. The Sihui case, which provided an example of 'one step ahead of the whole country' in terms of publicity through news media reporting, suggests that some progress has been made in certain aspects of China's environmental governance, albeit without a guarantee of everlasting duration. However, the overall result of the Sihui case sends discordant and mixed signals for diagnosing the status of environmental governance in China. Of equal importance, as shown in the Sihui case, is that the process between the hierarchical government and the rest of society was far from being interactive, but highlights too great a reliance on the government. Considered together, the thesis concludes that there are strong indications that complications exist within China's environmental governance. EG practice in China appears to be mired in political constraints, social dysfunction and exclusion, and is too rigidly driven by the obsessive consideration of economic imperatives