some international support; it mollified domestic environmental critics (who
questioned why China ranked 133rd among 142 countries in the Environ-
mental Sustainability Report); it provided a way to address the overheating of
the economy; and gave a cachet of legitimacy to the new regime of Hu Jintao
and Wen Jiabao. In 2004, sustainable development entered economic planning
as SEPA and the National Bureau of Statistics worked jointly to create a ‘green
GDP’ measure, which would subtract resource depletion and other environ-
mental externalities from the GDP in order to illustrate the relationships
between the environment and the economy.^67
A related concept, the ‘circular economy’, focused on low energy consump-
tion (as China surged into the international oil markets), low pollution and
high efficiency.^68 These are more applied iterations of the idea of sustainable
development, and they integrate the planning of powerful agencies with
environmental institutions.
Second, notwithstanding the decline of revenues to the central government
following marketizing reforms and devolution, it has the largest budget in
China, approximately 6.2 percent of GDP.^69 As we shall see in Chapter 5, the
central government can leverage its fiscal power to improve the management
and protective capabilities of nature reserves. Furthermore, as we shall discuss
in Chapters 6 and 7, the central government effectively manages all foreign
financial assistance China receives to protect its endangered species and
ecosystems. As foreign financial assistance is such a large component of
China’s overall spending on biodiversity conservation, the center influences
directions taken by provinces and local areas.
Third, some integration of policy is attained through the use of national
campaigns. Although mobilization campaigns have been explicitly repudiated
as a method of rule,^70 a compulsory national tree-planting campaign, which
started in 1981, has been a main factor in the success of China’s afforestation
program.^71
A fourth linkage mechanism is education about biodiversity issues through
schools, the media, the Internet and NGOs. China’s compulsory elementary
education system does teach students biology (called ‘nature’) and in the
context of this course, some information on biodiversity conservation may be
transmitted. Environmental science courses are popular at China’s colleges
and universities. The Ministry of Education has asked several universities to
teach environmental education, but this field is in its infancy in China.
The first environmental newspaper was the China Environmental News,
sponsored by SEPA and initiated in 1984. During the 1980s it was the primary
voice on environmental issues in China.^72 By 2000, China’s 2000 newspapers
carried 47000 articles on environment-related issues,^73 and the central
television station CCTV has produced several programs on the environment.
In a 2001 opinion survey, some 79 percent of respondents indicated that
88 Governance of biodiversity conservation in China and Taiwan