ENVIRONMENTALISM IN CHINA
The state of environmentalism in the China of 2005 resembles that in Taiwan
20 years previously: a few thousand environmental activists, divided among a
small number of environmental organizations monitored by the state, and
focused chiefly on local problems of air, water, and land pollution. Of course
there are significant differences, such as the role of government-organized and
international environmental groups, to which we refer below. Yet the
similarities suggest the importance of political and economic variables in the
development of environmental movements. We examine a few of these
political-economic conditions before analyzing the types of environmental
associations in China and the extent to which they express characteristics of
civil society.
The Political Economy of Environmentalism
Command economies in totalitarian states provide an inhospitable environ-
ment for the growth of social associations.^27 It was largely economic reform in
the direction of marketization, accompanied by a degree of political
liberalization that provided structural incentives for social group formation in
China. The lack of completion to these reforms by 2005 and the continued
dominance by the Leninist party-state are the primary disincentives for the
flowering of an environmental movement and development of an autonomous
civil society.
Starting with Deng Hsiaoping’s economic reforms beginning in 1978, the
focus of economic planning and growth switched from SOEs to TVEs, while
all public sector enterprises began to emphasize productivity and profitability
and gradually increased accountability of managers. The simultaneous
opening to the West attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign joint
ventures, and by the twenty-first century the non-state sector composed of
170 Governance of biodiversity conservation in China and Taiwan
Table 7.2 Taiwan’s ENGOs (2005)
Types of ENGOs No. of ENGOs
National ENGO 141
Local Environmental Protection Organizations 126
Others 33
Total 300
Source: Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan, ROC, retrieved from
http://www.epa.gov.tw/a/a0400.asp?Ct_Code=02X0000013X0007650, 27 December, 2005.