China’s environmental concerns began to emerge on a national scale not long after the Reform and Opening Up in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. In order to cope with the environmental consequences of modernization, China needed to adopt a new regulatory system and create an infrastructure to handle rampant pollution and environmental degradation. Along with industrialization, the Reform brought along an influx of Western ideologies, from capitalism to democracy. The environmental regulatory framework that began to emerge in China in the 1990’s was largely based on Western environmental policies. But the question remains – are these Western policies suitable for China’s environmental problems? Does their translation into the Chinese governmental system decrease their efficacy? What role do regulation and infrastructure play in determining environmental problems like water pollution?
Studying e-waste in China is an excellent way to examine these questions. E-waste export is a modern phenomenon, and e-waste recycling has emerged as a highly lucrative and informal industry in China. E-waste recycling in China is a point source of water pollution, from leaching of toxics in the recycled parts to ash from the burning of the electronics. E-waste is extremely difficult to regulate in China, despite recent efforts of Chinese ministries and even international laws such as the Basel Amendment, due to the irresistible combination of cheap labor and high demand. One large ideological obstacle is that Western-style regulatory policies in China do not incorporate Chinese views on e-waste. Chinese people tend to view e-waste as a resource rather than true waste – recycling rates are low in China because people are reluctant to pay for a recycling service when it seems to them that they should be paid for their valuable recyclable waste. Recent policies such as the Technical Policy on Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (2006) adopt a Western view of e-waste and overlook its value as a commodity in China’s lucrative e-waste recycling market.
Aquaculture is another large industry in China that has a significant impact on water pollution. China provides 70% of the world’s aquaculture products, and demand for Chinese aquaculture will continue to increase as depletion of marine fisheries continues. During the discussion, I mentioned that I believed aquaculture may have a greater potential for effective regulation and improved environmental standards than many other polluting industries in China. International markets place pressure on China to produce clean and uncontaminated fish – the US FDA annually rejects hundreds of shipments from China due to pharmaceutical contamination. China also places an emphasis on technological improvement of aquaculture. The Fisheries Bureau in China works with several supporting institutes to encourage research and innovation in the field of aquaculture, providing a framework for industry improvement. Additionally, aquaculture in rural China is managed through a collective system that also leaves room for privatization, a flexible hybrid of management that allows maximal benefit to rural communities through. Aquaculture not only brings jobs and money to rural regions, but also provides an important source of protein, which is often very difficult to obtain in rural areas.
Our class began and ended with a discussion of research integrity in China. We looked over a New York Times article, “Rampant Fraud Threat to China’s Brisk Ascent”, that succinctly addressed China’s status in the international academic arena. Given that many of our sources for this class are from Chinese institutions, the class must be careful to assess each reading and understand the goals of the institutions from which they were produced. For example, the article on Lake Tai from this week’s reading contrasted with other prominent international opinions on the serious pollution of Lake Tai. The Chinese article promoted increased public education and eco-tourism as a way to protect Lake Tai, while international papers tend to emphasize market-based solutions and institutional reform, highly Western ideas that do not necessarily align with Chinese regulatory ideals. This week, analyzing water pollution through case studies provided critical insight on the ideologies and infrastructures in China that play a role in regulating pollution.
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