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Abstract
After nearly four decades of rapid economic development, China has positioned itself as the second largest economy in the world. On the downside, the country is now facing a veritable environmental challenge, which particularly manifests in a pervasive degradation of China’s environment and a deterioration of its citizens’ health. This special issue of the Journal of Chinese Governance investigates the patterns of governance, which have emerged in response to China’s environmental challenges. The analytical focus is set on the interactive dynamic between state and non-state actors in the light of deteriorating natural resources and environments. Based on a conference about China’s climate and environmental challenges, this edition has selected a set of articles that highlight the various governance modes resulting from state and non-state actor interactions. Herein, the central questions focus on how both sides interact with each other, and whether the resulting dynamic is one of conflict or cooperation. The aim of this special issue is to contribute to the broader discussion on how both state and non-state actors shape the modes of environmental governance in China. It concludes by discussing China’s experience in environmental governance, the advantages as well as shortcomings and the possibilities for replication.
Notes
Notes on contributors
Yongdong Shen is a researcher at school of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University. Currently, his research work focuses on the following two topics: NGOs governance and local governments’ environmental policy enforcement in China. He is a research member of an international and interdisciplinary project “Airborne: Pollution, Climate Change, and Visions of Sustainability in China” based at University of Oslo.
Benjamin Steuer is a PhD candidate at the University of Vienna. His thesis deals with China’s Circular Economy, wherein a particular focus is set on waste management. Currently he works as a research assistant at the Institute of Waste Management at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) University, Vienna, as member of a research team participates in waste management projects in China.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Barbi et al., L. D. C. “Climate Change Challenges and China’s Response,” 324–339.
2 Ahlers and Hansen. “How Will China Win Its Self-declared War Against It?”
3 Economy, The River Runs Black.
4 For more details on the research of CHESS, the reader may refer to univie.chess.ac.at
5 Edmonds, “Studies on China’s Environment,” 725–732.
6 Ho and Edmonds, “Perspectives of Time and Change,” 331–344.
7 Holdaway, “Environment and Health in China,” 1–22.
8 Lora-Wainwright, “Dying for Development,” 243–254.
9 Grunow and Heberer, “Environmental Governance in China,” 3–12.
10 Rooij et al., “The Authoritarian Logic of Regulatory Pluralism,” 3–13.
11 Grano, “China’s Changing Environmental Governance,” 129–142.
12 Black, “Decentring Regulation,” 103–146.
13 Zhang et al., (2015). “China’s New Environmental Protection Law,” 1–3.
14 Zhang et al., “A New Environmental Protection Law, Many Old Problems,” 325–335.
15 Xie, “Political Participation and Environmental Movements in China”.
16 Ahlers and Shen, “Breathe Easy? Local Nuances of Authoritarian Environmentalism in China’s Battle Against Air Pollution”; Tilt, “Industrial Pollution and Environmental Health in Rural China,” 283–301.
17 Steinhardt and Wu, “In the Name of the Public,” 61–82.
18 Hao, “China to Release Plan for Tackling e-waste by End of Year, China Dialogue”.
19 Wübbeke, “China's Climate Change Expert Community,” 712–731.
20 Chen, “How Do Experts Engage in China’s Local Climate Change Governance?”
21 Ignatuschtschenko, “E-waste Management in China”.
22 Steuer, “Is China’s Regulatory System on Urban Household Waste Collection Effective?”
23 Hao, “China to Release Plan for Tackling e-Waste by End of Year, China Dialogue”.