Week 3: Economic Growth in China

Slides: Economic and Social Reform in China

Our topic for this week is the economic growth in China in the last couple decades, and how this is related to the environmental issues that China is facing today. This would provide us with background knowledge about recent economic trends in China, and set up the stage for our later topic-specific discussions in the coming weeks. One reading assignment is Prof. Liu's paper, but to some extent his paper fails to give us the macro-scopic image that we are looking for. Since I am the only person in our GISP that have really grown up in China, I decided to bring up external materials in my presentation. By doing so, I suggest four interesting themes that we may want to think about again and again during the semester as we are getting deeper and deeper into the field.

Theme 1: Is China having a real economic development or is there just GDP growth?
China has experienced an annual GDP growth about 10% in the last three decades, and it has become one of the largest economies in the world thanks to its huge population. However, a couple of socio-economic issues remains significant in China. The one that receives the most attention in China is probably the rual-urban inequality. Although China is labelled as a Communist Country, it actually has one of the largest rural-urban inequalities among all nations. Policies, including environmental regulations, in China treats rural and urban areas distinctively, which is one thing we have to take consideration of when we talk about environmental regulations in China in the future. In a most recent book published by the central government called "How to See the Seven (Issues)?" (《七个怎么看》), seven socio-economic issues are presented and discussed as the most important issues China is facing today. Surprisingly, environmental degradation is not one of them. On one hand, this reflects a lack of attention from the government. On the other hand, it reminds us of the limited resource that Chinese government can spend on environmental protection. The purpose of our GISP would certainly involve a reconsideration about the development path that China is currently taking.

Theme 2: Is China a centralized nation in an economic sense?
The Liu's paper we read presented three administrative issues in China that are relevant to effective environmental protection: (1) the standard on which officials are selected and promoted, (2) the lack of effective enforcement, (3) the lack of high-level cooperation. In addition to that, I would like to raise a fourth one, which is the lack of low-level cooperation. In our previous meetings, we have noticed the conflicts between local governments and the central government in China. It is true to some extent that China is an economically highly decentralized nation because economic activities are determined, or at least heavily influenced, by local governments on daily basis. This leads to a situation similar to the "tragedy of the commons" because natural resources are often common and transboundary resources.

Theme 3: Is the traditional China environmentally better?
Liu's paper propose an interesting argument that the ecological footprint is not determined by the size of population, but rather by the number of households. He thus also suggest that China, influenced by the West, has experienced a dramatic rise in divorce rate since 1980s, which is partly responsible for the rapid increase in hosuehold number and the pressure on the environment. Whether or not his argument holds is debatable, but this argument leads to an interesting issue that is troubling many Chinese people: which is more environmentally friendly, tradition or modernity? The traditional China possessed several characters that are often considered environmentally good: (1) large family size and strong family value, (2) self-sustaining local agriculture with much organic farming, and (3) low population mobility in geographical sense. China has just abandoned all these characters in its process of modernization in the last thirty of forty years. This also leads us to rethink about China's path of development.

Theme 4: Why Chinese people want to protect the environment? (an ethic question)
Unlike the US that has undergone the environmental movement in the 1960s, environmental movement in China, if there is any, is still at its very early stage. Traditional Chinese environmental ethics are often more anthropocentric, suggesting that people should not protect the environment only for the sake of environment. However, it is also important to point out that the "anthropocentric" is a western term that does not express an accurate meaning here. Man and nature are considered being corresponding with and interdependent on each other by Chinese culture. Although people's mind starts to change in the last century under the influence from the West, the old culture still has a strong legacy. This should not be neglected if we want to think about what kind/level of environmental regulation can be accepted by most Chinese people.

In the end we had a discussion on a legal case that took place in China last year. A farmer in Southwest China killed the last tiger of its endangered species, and was eventually sentenced a twelve-year in prison and a huge fine. This stimulated heated discussion among people across China. I personally think it would be really interesting to find out what would likely to be the sentence if the case happened in the US, which could be an interesting comparison. Since the legal system, especially on environmental issues, is still poorly established and very much under the experimentation stage in China, cases like this reflect the recent trend on its development.

Week 2: Environmental Policy Response

China.

It’s a loaded word these days in the US. It’s one that simultaneously evokes images of industrialization and factory labor, of overcrowded cities and displaced peoples, of chemical-laden rivers and smog filled air. And of course, let’s not forget the ubiquitous “national bird” of the country, the crane—ceaselessly at work transforming the landscape. Furthermore, to many Americans, there are even more sinister implications that the word summons: communism, the lack of human rights, and a government that will stop at nothing—sacrificing everything—for the sake of economic progress.
While these same people might scoff at the very idea of “Chinese environmental policy,” we learned this week that the central Chinese government is not, in fact, Evil Incarnate. It does not mandate that the country must spew carbon, sulfur, and other pollutants into the air. In reality, the bulk of China’s environmental problems stem from the fact the central government and the local governments that are ultimately responsible for many of the polluting factories have largely irreconcilable differences in interest. The central government is focused on statistics. They want to decrease carbon emissions and increase GDP, while the process for doing so is secondary. And while their suggestions they do make may be effective in urban settings such as Beijing and Shanghai, the sheer size of the country ensures that in many locales, these approaches simply will not work.
Local leaders want to bring economic prosperity to their region, they want their people to live well, and they want some attention from the international business community. These goals are not necessarily compatible with the central government’s large-scale plans for reducing carbon emissions, and factories subsequently claim that it is too difficult to comply with the Environmental Protection Bureau’s regulations. Moving forward, the differences between the local and central government will always be an issue in the development of China—the country is simply too big to be able to cater to everyone’s needs.
For those still skeptical of the central government’s desire to curb pollution in China, here’s a quote from the New York Times. According to Peggy Liu, chairwoman of the Joint U.S.-China Collaboration on Green Energy: “China’s leaders are mostly engineers and scientists, so they don’t waste time questioning scientific data… China is changing from the factory of the world to the clean-tech laboratory of the world.” As prices rise in China, and foreign companies look to other countries for their source of cheap labor, this vision may well become a reality. But until then, this issue of local government vs. central government may be a problem, like so many others, without a clear solution.

"Week 3: China's Economic Growth Summary" Response

ppt: China's Economic Growth

A discussion of China’s present day situation cannot be complete without mention of the industrial powerhouse that the country has become in the very recent history. Our focus this week was the extraordinary surge of economic growth that has carried the country that contains nearly a fifth of the world’s population into the 21^st century. The repetition of a few key, astounding numbers (1978 reform leading to an annual rise of nearly 10% GDP for the next 30 years), may be in part due to sheer amazement that can only be mollified by repetition until desensitization. During our discussions this week, the recurring theme of Western and foreign impressions of the Chinese and China surfaced once more. In general, we feel as though that among these sentiments exists a lot of mistrust, judgment and the impression that the Chinese thrust aside their morals in order to meet their rigorous deadlines and goals for development. At first, many foreigners doubted the validity of China’s “economic miracle”: they believed, and to varying extents still believe, that the data coming from China is highly inflated to make the progress of China’s economy.

However, despite the very real possibility that China manipulates data that it publishes to the public and international forums, it is undeniable that the country has experienced incredible change in its economic sector in a historically short period of time. What remain open to question are the impacts of this growth and the implications for its future: restructuring of the economic system, cultural tensions of modernization and import of western culture have changed the day-to-day lives of billions of Chinese people. Larger issues that beg attention from the government and citizens alike are also emerging; among them is the environment. Interestingly enough, in a published report published by the Chinese government in 2010, “七个怎么看” or “How to See the Seven Issues”, environmental degradation was not among seven explicitly stated areas of current concern. Especially at the level of central government, we’ve seen many actions and indications that preservation of the environment is acknowledged as an important consideration.

For example, the latest five year plan, covering 2005-2010 had stated the importance of creating ways to mitigate environmental impacts within China. In particular, the realm of fossil fuel emissions and energy efficiency are an area of new actions. With the recent news of China as the world’s greatest producer of solar panels and their ambitious goals to reduce CO­₂ emissions by 20%, it is clear to see that they are responding to at least this aspect of environmental degradation. Perhaps in part motivated by international pressure as much as self-preservation, China has, at least in print, aims to alter their energy mix away from the extremely inefficient (in terms of energy/emissions) coal. Considering its abundance and availability, however, the economic motives for transitioning away from coal as an energy source still seem hazy. While China actually follow through?

Sustainability in China’s development is also a key buzzword: will this growth and success last? Potential weaknesses still exist in the中国特色的社会主义, or the hybrid of free market that has grown out of the socialist ashes of Maoist China. Analysts point to the fragilities, such as the financial sector, housing market, misplaced incentives and subsidies; and warn of their potential to deflate the balloon of China’s awesome increase in GDP. But will the Achilles’ heel actually be environmental degradation?

However, an excellent question raised by Wumeng will continue to hang in my mind while I consider the consequences and future of this economic change in China: has China been developing or simply growing? How are they different? How can we consider the increase in the rural urban disparity while also acknowledging the increased standard of living of the country as a whole? The cost of industry in terms of the environment and the subsequent health of billions?

"Week 2: Chinese Environmental Policy" Response

Chinese Environmental Policy Week 2 Kayla Ppt

This week Vishal and I gave presentations on the readings. Vishal focused on streamlining the information in Environmental Regulation in China (Ma Xiaoying and Leonard Ortolano), I took on the Benjamin van Rooj article ("Implementation of Chinese Environmental Law: Regular Enforcement and Political Campaigns") as well as chapters from The Struggle for Sustainability in Rural China (Bryan Tilt). Devon also presented on an article about subsidies for clean energy in China that are being contested by the United Steel Workers Union.

I found it interesting how our discussion drifted time and again during this class to questions of uniqueness. First in terms of China's possibly unique position in terms of the enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. Does the fact that the State has such great power in China give China a potential for widespread and consistent enforcement that a country like the United States would never have? Some of our readings seemed to suggest that the answer is no - Tilt in particular seemed to contest the notion of the central Chinese government as a monolithic entity, and argue that continual (across history) and ineradicable tensions between the periphery and centre are what need to be taken into account in order to enact environmental law. While most of us agreed with the idea that using solely a top down approach to sustaining and enriching China's landscape would be to ignore the conflicting interests present in different pockets of power in China (and thus likely fail), we also thought that central government's power in China could be exploited to administer "sustainability" on a scale that has never been seen before (as Cecilia put it, if the Chinese government decided they wanted hybrid cars at a certain number of Environmental Protection Bureaus tomorrow, it is easy to imagine it happening in China).

Second, we also honed in on how the authors of our readings seemed to highlight how "special" every environmental enforcement situation in China is, how it seems from the books and articles that no one solution will apply to any particular case. The question of how to find a workable, effective balance between adaptability and stringency in Chinese environmental law (and the law of most other countries?) should be a big one throughout the course.

Week 1: Introduction summary response

Like most subjects, the broad topic of China’s environment may be somewhat akin to a fractal: infinitely spiraling down into endlessly minute levels of detail. Without the big picture, it may be easy to get lost in the in the hundreds of issues and millions, make that billions, of people. For a big picture groundwork, we discussed the physical geography of the country as well as the broad ideas behind recent historical change in China. Although we were all at some level familiar with these topics, it was rewarding and helpful to actually engage in a discussion about them. For the geographic presentation, I displayed a series of what I considered to be some of the most relevant and interesting maps of China: topographic, satellite, population density, provinces delineation, precipitation, as well as some from the Frank Leeming book that was assigned reading. From the perspective of these maps, we discussed some of the problems that China faces as a country; in particular the contrasting distributions of people, resources, as well as the type of resources seems to drive some of the country’s tensions. From a policy point of view, we mentioned the continuing struggle that China has with other countries over ownership of some territories. Most interesting were the parallels that could be drawn for the geographic features defining human problems in similar ways for the United States of America. Discussion was sparked by the thematic question: does industrial/economic advancement come at the necessary cost of environmental protection? We focused on the conundrum of smaller, rural industries as large sources of pollutants, probably inspired by the Bryan Tilt book. These factories are largely employing outdated, inefficient technologies that are especially harmful to the environment. However, in some areas foreign competition has driven Chinese companies to invest in more efficient, modern technology. Is this kind of competition a potential solution? While laws to protect the environment exist on paper, their enforcement is highly variable. This may be due to the actual power lying in the hands of local authorities, who, familiar with the crushing poverty that has only recently begun to lift for most of the country, value the economic growth of the region over environmental damage. Lastly, we talked about what it will take to solve some of these issues. Will it take an overhaul of the mentality of the Chinese people? As Tilt points out, many instances have occurred recently that highlight Chinese people’s concern for their environment, even if it is first motivated by health and other economic concerns. Nevertheless, it may be a first step in initiating change.