Abstract
China’s thriving economy takes a toll on its environmental sustainability, and recent decades have witnessed an irreversible degradation in China’s environmental conditions. Meanwhile, the environmental issue in China is embedded in a large and complex political and social context that has been undergoing continual and far-reaching transformations. With an attempt to diagnose the weak link and to shed light on solutions for China’s environmental issue, this article explores and analyzes an array of political and social factors: changes in China’s environmental policies and political orientations, conflicts between economic growth and environmental protection, political decentralization and its impact on the environmental issue, and China’s civil society’s role in public awareness and support for environmental protection.
Highlights
China has increasingly become a global economic powerhouse
This paper attempts to shed light on solutions for China’s environmental issue by exploring and analyzing an array of political social factors. It examines the changes in China’s environmental policies and political orientations; second, it discusses the conflicts between economic growth and environmental protection, political decentralization and its impact on the environmental issue; third, it explores the civil society in China and its role in public awareness and support for the cause of environmental protection
Environmental protection and its policies are often portrayed as a conflict to economic growth, because stringent regulations would constrain the scope of the industrial development, require more “green” apparatus, and cost substantial resources to process wastes and pollutants
Summary
Received August 17th, 2013; revised September 18th, 2013; accepted September 28th, 2013. China’s thriving economy takes a toll on its environmental sustainability, and recent decades have witnessed an irreversible degradation in China’s environmental conditions. The environmental issue in China is embedded in a large and complex political and social context that has been undergoing continual and far-reaching transformations. With an attempt to diagnose the weak link and to shed light on solutions for China’s environmental issue, this article explores and analyzes an array of political and social factors: changes in China’s environmental policies and political orientations, conflicts between economic growth and environmental protection, political decentralization and its impact on the environmental issue, and China’s civil society’s role in public awareness and support for environmental protection
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