was sent. Although China has a strong government, it cannot control everything. It
is not like the US or other western countries. Distant places can get away with a lot.
Second, places which have many threatened species and ecosystems are also very
poor. Economic development is more important to them. Local governments look
to people’s needs. Thus the central government always emphasizes “scientific”
sustainable development. We always supply ideas, we want biodiversity. The
developed areas should support the less developed ones. Now, however, there is no
way to do this.’^62The apparently irreconcilable nature of this contradiction is readily accepted
by policy elites, and conditions the meaning of sustainable development. By
‘scientific’, this researcher seemed to imply feasible, what could be accom-
plished at existing resource levels without compromising economic growth.
Linkage Mechanisms
The gap between national policy and local implementation in China is
partially bridged by several linkage mechanisms, and we discuss four: central
government coordination, national fiscal policy, mobilization campaigns and
transmission channels, particularly the media and NGOs.
First, the State Council of China is capable of reaching from national into
local affairs. Although in theory the State Council is subordinate to the
National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee, as Saich notes: ‘it is,
in effect, the government of China’.^63 It was the State Council which consented
to the establishment, in 1992, of the China Council for International
Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED).^64 The State
Council acknowledges what information is important by accepting reports,
such as information presented annually by the Biodiversity Working Group of
CCICED, and its recent (2004) China Red Listand report on protected areas.
In response to the requirements of the Convention on Biodiversity Conserva-
tion, the State Council established a Coordinating Group for Implementation
of CBD, with a membership of 20 departments and a technical support
system.^65
The State Council also monitors law enforcement, and in 1993 promulgated
a ‘Notice on Strengthening Investigation on Enforcement of Environmental
Laws and Punishing Illegal Activities’. Within one year (1993–94), it
increased by 50 percent the areas of investigation, which turned up 100000
cases of violations concerning wild animals, forests, grasslands, and mining
development. By 1996, investigations reached 29 provinces/regions.^66
Sustainable development planning, pursued under State Council aegis, also
assists integration. The Chinese regime appeared to pay less attention to
sustainability policies than rich states because of their apparent cost.
Leadership warmed to the concept for several reasons: the rhetoric attracted
The framework for biodiversity conservation 87