Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T00:26:00.187Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Institutional Constraints on Environmental Management in Urban China: Environmental Impact Assessment in Guangzhou and Shanghai*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Shui Yan Tang ,
CarlosWing Hung Lo ,
Kai Chee Cheung  and
Jack Man Keung Lo
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Since the mid-1980s, many books and articles have been published that examine China′s environmental problems. Some authors reported the alarming rate of environmental degradation in China, while others argued that post-Mao reforms created the conditions for more effective environmental management than in the past. More recently, in an attempt to move beyond broad generalizations about China′s environmental management capabilities, some authors have examined China′s environmental management system at the local level, focusing on problems ranging from policy implementation to local officials′ environmental consciousness.

Type
Research Notes
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 152 , December 1997 , pp. 863 - 874
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

We acknowledge the financial support provided by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. We also thank Lam Tao-Chiu, Sheldon Kamieniecki, Ching-Ping Tang and Diane Yoder for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

References

1. Edmonds, Richard L., Patterns of China′s Lost Harmony: A Survey of the Country′s Environmental Degradation and Protection(New York: Routledge, 1994)]CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Vaclav, Smil, The Bad Earth: Environmental Degradation in China(Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 1984)]Google Scholar; Vaclav, Smil, China′s Environmental Crisis: An Inquiry into the Limits of National Development, (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 1993)]Google Scholar; and Geping, Qu and Jinchang, Li, Population and the Environment in China(trans. Jiang Baozhong and Gu Ran, ed. Robert B. Boardman) (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1994).]Google Scholar

2. Lester, Ross, Environmental Policy in China(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988)]Google Scholar; and Lester, Ross, “The politics of environmental policy in the People′s Republic of China,” Policy Studies Journal, Vol. 20, No. 4 (1992), pp. 628–642.]Google Scholar

3. See Chan, Hon S. et al., “The implementation gap in environmental management in China: the case of Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, and Nanjing,” Public Administration Review, Vol. 55, No. 4 (1995), pp. 333–340]CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jahiel, Abigail R., “The contradictory impact of reform on environmental protection in China,” The China Quarterly, No. 149 (March 1997), pp. 81–103]CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Carlos, Wing-Hung Lo and Tang, Shui-Yan, “Institutional contexts of environmental management: water pollution control in Guangzhou, China,” Public Administration and Development, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1994), pp. 53–64]Google Scholar; and Sinkule, Barbara J. and Ortolano, Leonard, Implementing Environmental Policy in China(Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995).]Google Scholar

4. Lo and Tang, “Institutional contexts.”]Google Scholar

5. Jean, C. Oi, “Fiscal reform and the economic foundation of local state corporatism in China,” World Politics, Vol. 45, No. 1 (1992), pp. 99–126]Google Scholar; Jean, C. Oi, “The role of the local state in China′s transitional economy,” The China Quarterly, No. 144 (December 1995), pp. 1132–1149]Google Scholar; and Xiabao, Hu, “Political economy of decentralization and resource allocation in contemporary China,” Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 1994.]Google Scholar

6. Chan et ai, “The implementation gap.”

7. World, Bank, World Development Report 1992: Development and the Environment(New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).]CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Rosenbaum, Walter A. “The bureaucracy and environmental policy,” in Lester, James P. (ed.), Environmental Politics and Policy(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995)]Google Scholar; and Voge, David, National Styles of Regulations: Environmental Policy in Great Britain and the United States, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986).]Google Scholar

9. Datong, Ning et al., “Environmental impact assessment in China: present practice and future developments,” Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1988), pp. 85–95]Google Scholar; and Wenger, Robert B., Huadong, Wang and Xiaoying, Ma, “Environmental impact assessment in the People′s Republic of China,” Environmental Management, Vol. 14, No. 4 (1990), pp. 429–439.]CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. Members of the research team have had regular contacts with environmental agencies in Guangzhou since 1990. Some materials presented in this article were collected through in-depth interviews in 1995 and 1996 with the Chief and staff in the Division of Development and Construction Administration in the Guangzhou Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, as well as the staff in the Guangzhou Research Institute of Environmental Protection Sciences. In Shanghai, in-depth interviews were conducted in 1996 with the Chief of the Environmental Impact Assessment Institute, the deputy directors of the Department of Supervision and Administration, the Chief of Shanghai Environmental Education Centre, the Director of the Environmental Protection Bureau of Shanghai Pudong New Area, and reporters in Shanghai huanjing bao.

11. Hao Xingren, “The management system and the enforcement procedures of environmental assessment in the People′s Republic of China,” paper presented in the Seminar on EIA Requirements, Experience and Technology in Mainland China and Hong Kong, Hong Kong Productivity Council, 1993]Google Scholar; and K.K. Wong and Hon S. Chan, “The development of environmental management system in the People′s Republic of China,” in Maurice Brosseau and Chi Kin Lo (eds.), China Review 1994(Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1994).]Google Scholar

12. Shanghai shi huanjing baohu ju (Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau), “Caiqu youli cuoshi, quanli yifu gaohao yinyong shuiyuan baohu” (“Taking effective measures, trying the best to improve the protection of drinking water resources”) in Guojia huanjing baohuju wuran guanli si (The Pollution Control Division of the National Environmental Protection Agency) (ed.), Shui huanjing guanli (The Management of Water Environment)(Beijing: Zhongguo huanjing kexue chubanshe, 1991), p. 44.]Google Scholar

13. Clark, Michael and Herington, John (eds.), The Role of Environmental Impact Assessment in the Planning Process(London: Mansell Publishing, 1988)]Google Scholar; Wramner, Peter, “Environmental impact assessment of development projects: experiences from Nordic aid,” in Asit K. Biswas and S. B. C. Agarwal (eds.), Environmental Impact Assessment in Developing Countries(London: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1992), pp. 168–177]Google Scholar; and Kakonge, John O., “Monitoring of environmental impact assessments in Africa,” Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Vol. 14, No. 3 (1994), pp. 295–304.]CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14. Rosenbaum, “The bureaucracy and environmental policy.”]Google Scholar

15. Recently, limited public participation has taken place in the form of opinion surveys undertaken by projects sponsored by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bant

16. Some of the measures local environmental agencies could take against a developer include asking the planning authorities to delete the project from the city′ s annual construction plan, asking the bank to cancel loans that have been arranged for the project, asking the industrial and commerce authorities to reject the project′s registration application or to disqualify its operation licence, asking the public works authorities to refuse to provide public facilities, and requesting the utilities authorities to terminate the supply of electricity and water. An agency could also impose fines on those in charge of the project for carrying out construction works without the agency′s consent, for putting the project into operation before completing appropriate pollution prevention and control facilities, or for failing to operate pollution control facilities properly after the project has gone into operation.

17. Sinkule and Ortolano, Implementing Environmental Policy in China.

18. Chan, Hon S. etal., “The socio-political limits of environmental control in the People′s Republic of China: a case study in Guangzhou,” in Nagel, S. and Mills, M. (eds.), Public Administration. Public Policy and the People′s Republic of China, (New York: Macmillan, 1993).]Google Scholar

19. The agency examined the following numbers of EIA forms and reports: 622 in 1989, 482 in 1990; 612 in 1992; and 620 in 1993. See Guangzhou nianjian bianzuan weiyuanhui (Guangzhou Yearbook Editorial Board) (ed.), Guangzhou nianjian 1995 (Guangzhou Yearbook 1995)(Guangzhou: Guangzhou nianjian chubanshe, 1995).]Google Scholar

20. The agency examined the following numbers of EIA forms and reports: 402 in 1989; 359 in 1990; and 637 in 1993. See Zhongguo huanjing nianjian 1990,1991, and 1994 {China Environmental Yearbook, 1990, 1991, and 1994).

21. Chan et al., “The implementation gap in environmental management.”

22. Wu Qianzhao, Guangzhou shi de huanjing yingxiang pinggu (Environmental Impact Assessment In Guangzhou)(Guangzhou: Guangzhou shi huanjing baohu kexue yanjiu suo, 1994).]Google Scholar

23. Guangzhou nianjian 1995.

24. Personal interviews with officials in the Guangzhou Environmental Protection Bureau. 25. Guangzhou nianjian 1995, p. 156.

26. Shanghai shi huanjing baohu ju (Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau), Huanjing baohu fagui daquan (Collection of Environmental Protection Laws and Regulations)(Shanghai: Shanghai kexue jishu wenxian chubanshe, 1995).]Google Scholar

27. Shanghai huanjing bao, 8 July 1995, p. 1.

28. He Zhan, “Zhengshou chao biaozhun paiwufei zhidu de tantao” (“An inquiry of the system of pollution fees charged for exceeding indices”), paper presented in the Inaugural Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau Conference on Environmental Law and Environmental Management, Guangzhou, China, 1994.]Google Scholar

29. Sinkule and Ortolano, Implementing Environmental Policy.

30. Shanghai shi paiwu shoufei jianli suo (Division for Supervising and Managing Pollutant Discharge Fees of Municipal Shanghai), “ ′Liuwu′ qijian Shanghai shi paiwu shoufei gongzuo huigu” (“A review of the work on levying pollutant discharge fees in Shanghai during the period of the Sixth Five-Year Plan”) in Guojia huanjing baohu ju (National Environmental Protection Agency) (ed.), Zhongguo de paiwu shoufei (Levying Pollutant Discharge Fees in China)(Beijing, Haiyang chubanshe, 1988), p. 107.

31. Personal interview with Wu Qianzhao, Director of the Division and Construction Administration of the Guanghzou Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, formerly Deputy Director of the Guangzhou Research Institute for Environmental Protection Sciences.

32. Personal interview with the Chief of Environmental Impact Assessment Institute, the Shanghai Municipal Academy of Environmental Sciences.

33. Sinkule and Ortolano, Implementing Environmental Policy.

34. Montinola, Gabriella, Qian, Yingyi and Weingast, Barry R., “Federalism, Chinese style: the political basis for economic success in China,” World Politics, Vol. 48, No. 1 (1995), pp. 50–81.]CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35. Sinkule, and Ortolano, , Implementing Environmental Policy;and Yong-Nian Zheng, “Institutional change, local developmentalism, and economic growth: the making of semi-federalism in reform China,” Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1995.]Google Scholar