China's environmental policies and its Southeast Asian neighbours

Abstract

China's stated environmental policy is admirable, and does contain targets that are in line with the Rio Declaration. But whatever the goals and implementations domestically, much of China's environment spills over into its neighbours' territory. In reality any nation-state's environment can no longer be monitored and controlled only through that state's policies. Rather, it is by nature a transnational set of resources requiring trans-national policymaking.

The People's Republic of China has a vast number of borders, including land borders with 14 nations over 22,000 km in length and with a shared natural environment. Its environmental policy, therefore, is of immediate concern to all. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community will undergo full economic integration in 2015, and its members must agree on consistent standards for the environment. Yet, we find in China's Five-Year Plan no specific mention of environmental protection for its cross-border partners. If this is not properly addressed, it is likely to mean long-term contamination, including in areas inside China. This study focuses on the impacts of current Chinese environmental policies and issues on its neighbours in Southeast Asia. It seeks to show that for China's sake as well as that of relations with its neighbours, environmental policy needs to include multilateral negotiations and agreements on cross-border environmental resources.

Keywords:

• environmental policy
• cross-border
• multilateral
• China
• Southeast Asia

Notes

1. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (2012), the plural ‘resources’ used in the meaning of a nation's aggregate wealth or the means thereto is found in the work of Renaissance-era political theorist Edmund Burke (1779/1963): ‘The first thing to be done for the defence of a Country is to have its resources and its arms in honest and able hands.’ Not surprisingly, this statement was made within 3 years after the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, on the start of the Industrial Revolution.

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3. ‘The large sediment loads to oceans in Southeast Asia are two thirds of the world's total sediment transport to oceans. This arises from the combination of active tectonics, heavy rainfall, substantial local relief with steep slopes, and erodible soils including the loess belt of northern China’ (Global Environmental Monitoring System/Water 2002).