The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future (review)

China is the world's most rapidly developing country as well as a nation suffering greatly from environmental degradation. Water is increasingly scarce; forest resources have shrunk; fully one-fourth's of China's land area is now desert; air, land, and water are heavily polluted. Indeed, China's rivers do run black, as Elizabeth Economy titles her comprehensive and readable account of changes to China's environment in the era of economic reform.

Although China's environmental problems are comparable to those of other developing nations, the scale of the Chinese population—1.3 billion—in an area somewhat larger than the United States makes the case of China exceedingly important in global environmental politics. Too, China contributes greatly to three serious global environmental problems—greenhouse gas emissions, transboundary acid rain, and biodiversity loss. For these reasons, readers of this journal should pay attention to the prospects for the improvement of China's environmental protection regime.

Economy's first chapter surveys the serious problems of environmental degradation in China and their cost, estimated at 8 to 12 percent of GDP. She distinguishes her book from other interpretations by its focus on political institutions and politics, asking these questions:

• "Who are the key actors and what is their relative power?
• How are resources allocated to environmental protection?
• How is environmental policy formulated and implemented?
• What incentives do or do not exist for government, business, and society in China to advance goals of environmental protection?"

(p.14)

Economy next reviews China's environmental legacy, finding that economic development has always been a higher priority than environmental protection. China's tradition of Confucian humanism has impaired environmental governance because of the lack of independent scientific inquiry, a transparent political system, and accountable leadership (p.27). Too, the tendency of China's leaders to devolve authority to the provincial and local levels has been an obstacle to sustainability. She finds the Maoist attempts to overcome nature, seen in the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, as equals to the worst environmental excesses of the imperial era.¹

Chapter 3 examines the environmental cost of China's very rapid economic development since the onset of Teng Hsiaoping's economic reforms in 1978. For example, the township and village enterprises, which are critical to rural economic development, are also responsible for 50 percent of pollution nationally (p.63). Economic development has led to increased use of coal (supplying two-thirds of China's energy needs), unsustainable logging, loss of grasslands, water scarcity, more vehicles in use and resulting increases of pollution, mistaken government policies on grain production and food security, and serious loss of topsoil—all of which are related to biodiversity loss, climate warming, and desertification. These problems have increased public health risks, led to displacement of from 20 to 60 million people, and, Economy claims, caused 170,000 protests in 2000 alone.²

Economy then turns to the institutional and political problems that challenge a "greening" of China: weak central environmental protection laws and institutions, limited investment, and few incentives. Environmental policy lacks a strong centralized focus, and other interests generally prevail over environmental protection. The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) was not formed until 1988 and lacked cabinet status until 1998. Environmental laws are over-broad, reading like policy statements instead of specific directives. Implementation and monitoring functions are relegated to local environmental protection bureaus. They are well supplied with personnel, but operate under provincial or municipal control and are poorly funded. Investment by the state in environmental protection in the 2001-05 plan period is 1.3 percent of GDP (about $85 billion US), less than half of that needed for sustainability (p.107). In areas where local leaders are pro-environment, with high income and connected to the international community, such as Shanghai, Dalian, and Zhongshen, progress has been made (p.128). [End Page 139...