China’s Environment: Views from Above, Below, and Beyond

For decades now, no discussion of global environmental problems and solutions—from climate change to regional air pollution to deforestation—has been complete without a consideration of China’s roles. China’s economic rise over the past forty years has lifted unprecedented numbers of people into the global middle class and formed the cornerstone of the modern global supply chain. This rise has been accompanied by serious environmental damage, but has also spurred unparalleled investments in renewable energy and efficiency technologies.

While China’s early entry into international environmental negotiations was marked by resistance to any restrictions on its growth, the Beijing government has more recently emerged as a world leader on climate change issues, befitting China’s role as the most populous nation, fastest growing major economy, and largest carbon emitter. It was show of solidarity between President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama that opened the door to the Paris Agreement in 2015, and both nations pledged to sign the agreement in 2016, formalizing their national commitments to reduce carbon emissions. A year later, when a new US administration took steps to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, China’s leaders proceeded with their goals to reduce emissions by 2030, signaling their intention to assume global leadership on this issue. Attending a global summit on clean energy technology, California Governor Jerry Brown told the New York Times, “I didn’t come to Washington, I came to Beijing” (Hernández and Nagourney 2017).

The dizzying rate of China’s progress on solar and wind energy, building efficiency, high-speed rail, and other green technologies can evoke envy from Western environmentalists lamenting the slow pace of change in democratic countries. The “eco-authoritarianism” of China’s one-party state faces few checks on relocating residents for dams or high-speed rail lines, shutting down polluting industries to ensure blue skies for high-profile events like the Beijing Olympics, or simply enacting a national ban on plastic bags (Sze 2015). But at the local level, environmental initiatives often stall in the face of the higher priorities of economic development and maintaining social order. Residents affected by land seizures and acute pollution have turned to mass protests, often evoking harsh crackdowns. With tight constraints on civil society, it is unclear whether the local protests can coalesce into a widespread environmental movement, or effect a shift in national priorities.

China’s Environmental Challengesby Judith Shapiro has deservedly become a standard text for introducing students and the general public to the state of China’s environment. From air and water pollution to the loss of endangered species and arable land, the book covers all the bases, while avoiding the trap of treating each as a discrete issue. Instead, the book is organized around themes of governance, civil society, and environmental justice, providing examples across sectors along the way. Shapiro works in her deep knowledge of Chinese history and politics to help readers understand the multifaceted causes of contemporary China’s environmental problems, from population growth and globalization to the state’s capacity to adapt and implement policy. The chapter on “Sustainable Development and National Identity,” reaching back into Chinese philosophical traditions and the colonial depredations and revolutionary ferment of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, deftly frames the longstanding debate over the relationship between culture and environmental behavior without falling into trite, oversimplistic explanations of the current situation.

The second edition of China’s Environmental Challenges(released in 2016) provides much more than a cursory update to developments in environmental incidents, policy, and scholarship. The original 2012 edition already included nearly comprehensive references to prominent English-language journalistic and scholarly accounts of China’s environmental issues, and those have been thoroughly refreshed to reflect recent developments, like the 2015 chemical plant explosions in Tianjin and the growing effects of climate change...