Recent developments in Taiwan are less sanguine. The environmental
movement and ENGOs of the 1980s stimulated civil consciousness and civil
rights, leading to Taiwan’s robust civil society in 2005. The environmental
movement also led to high expectations of what democratic government could
accomplish in environmental protection. However, political entrepreneurs
took advantage of environmental appeals to gain votes; winning office, most
returned to pro-development themes. Hopes of environmentalists were dashed
when the DPP did not support the anti-Binnan campaign and when President
Chen Shui-bian authorized resumption to construction of the fourth nuclear
power plant.
There is a danger in making generalizations based on the changes of a few
years. After the conclusion of Chen Shui-bian’s term in office in 2008, a
different party may gain national power. Yet the KMT alliance has not
established substantial linkages with ENGOs, and has not yet put environ-
mental issues onto its political agenda. Thus, it seems that to the present, the
election-driven system of democracy in Taiwan has marginalized the
environmental movement, and has not facilitated long-term policies of
environmental sustainability. We should not expect, then, that a transition to
democracy in China will lead the state to adopt environmental protection goals
into its core values.
ENDNOTES
- Yan, Xie, Wang Sung and Peter Schei (2004), China’s Protected Areas, Beijing: Tsinghua
University Press. - Personal interview with SEPA official, Beijing, May 21, 2005.
- Personal interview with social science institution chair, Beijing, January 12, 2005.
- Personal interview with political analyst, Beijing, May 26, 2005.
- Personal interview with China director of multinational corporation, Beijing, May 23, 2005.
- See Jahiel, Abigail R. (1998), ‘The organization of environmental protection in China’,
China Quarterly, (156) (December), 786. - See Vermeer, Eduard B. (1998), ‘Industrial pollution in China and remedial policies’, China
Quarterly, (156) (December), 953. - Tremayne, Bruce and Penny deWaal (1998), ‘Business opportunities for foreign firms
related to China’s environment’, China Quarterly, (156) (December), 1030. - See http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/offrep/eap/china.htm.
- Wan, Ming (1998), ‘China’s economic growth and the environment in the Asia-Pacific
region’, Asian Survey, XXXVIII, (4) (April), 377–8. - Zhang, Guang (2004), ‘The determinants of foreign aid allocation across China’, Asian
Survey, XLIV, (5) (September/October), 709.
Conclusions 231