The Environment with Chinese Characteristics: Implications for Policy, Governance, and Political Change

Multiple strains of China’s major philosophical /religious / cosmological ideologies variously emphasize harmony,respect, non-action, non-interference, or careful stewardship ofhuman relationships to the natural world. Yet throughout mostof its history, China’s land and resources have more often thannot been subject to highly anthropogenic processes that arematerially transformative: natural features have been rigorouslycontrolled or shaped to suit human purposes. These materialdevelopments contrast sharply with a wide range of more gentleattitudes toward nature expressed in Taoist, Buddhist, andConfucian ideologies. This paper examines such contradictions,starting with early periods of Chinese political history, through toMao’s “attack on nature” during The Great Leap Forward, butit concentrates on specifically Chinese characteristics regardingcurrent environmental tensions, problems, policies, andimperatives it its current era of rapid development and economicgrowth. The primary questions asked are: Is there anyrelationship between current environmental problems and waysof thinking about or acting on them that facilitate the possibilityof political change? Do newly emerging forms of environmentalconsciousness now replace other forms of political consciousnessin China, such as class, given a new climate of prosperity and therise of both capitalist enterprise and middle-class concerns aboutconsumption and quality of life? Is environmental consciousnessenough to tip the balance toward real political/social change?This paper makes the case that environmental managementalways reflects political structures and that the terms ofengagements between social institutions and the natural worldhave always been significant. Whereas China has had a historyof centralized authoritarianism, political isolation, and attemptsto keep foreign influences at a distance, such stances are nolonger viable given the global nature of environmentalresponsibility and concern. Current environmental politicalthought that recognizes that proper “governance” ofenvironmental issues can not be left to governments alone. Alsorequired are a wide range of localized, public / private, orgovernment / community / individual partnerships. China seemsto have recognized and affirmed such link-ups in the domain ofeconomic development. Now the task seems to be to apply suchpartnerships toward the goal of environmental sustainability. Ina political culture in which NGOs still need official recognition inthe form of sponsorship by a government agency China still has along way to go in realizing this widely recognized mode ofenvironmental management success in which power is not justgovernmental but also popular. Given the scale of China’s globalenvironmental impact, these are crucial questions for our timeand they significantly affect China’s position within the worldcommunity