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‘This is Our Way In’: The Civil Society of Environmental NGOs in South-West China1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Caroline M. Cooper
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Abstract

A growing number of Chinese environmental groups constitute not only an effective force in tackling environmental issues, but also a genuine civil society that is transforming state-society relations in China. This paper will consider how the environmental movement now taking shape among south-western China's environmental NGOs creates new civic freedoms and deals with existing constraints under the current Chinese political system. While this empowerment of local citizens will have a broadly positive influence on the protection of China's environment, precedent from other transitioning countries shows that environmental movements can be inextricably linked to important new freedoms for the public as well as jarring political change.

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Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , 2006 , pp. 109 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 2006

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Footnotes

1

The quotation in the title refers to a statement made by Ms Yen Baohua of Friends of Nature in Beijing, in describing the usefulness of China's environmental movement to apply diverse political pressures and contribute to the broader reform process.

References

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4 ‘Zhongguo NGO Shengtai’ (‘The Life of China's NGOs’), Caijing, 5 July 2002, p. 23.Google Scholar

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8 The full findings of the research were produced as a mimeo for the Center for the Environment at Harvard University. A copy of this report can be obtained through the Center at Harvard's Lamont Library or by permission of the author.Google Scholar

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29 Ibid., p. 40.Google Scholar

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34 This is the NGO-type most featured in this paper: legally registered but markedly more independent.Google Scholar

35 The ideas of participation in this sense are shaped as much from the influence of Robert Chambers and counselling from the Ford Foundation and related support agencies, as from what the organization feels to be appropriate and useful in the Chinese context (Ren Xiaodong, director of the Community Based Conservation and Development Research Center, personal interview, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, 20 January 2003).Google Scholar

36 Mr Tan Jingzheng, director of Ai Hua, personal interview, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 17 January 2003.Google Scholar

37 Change is measured either in terms of total policy adjustment or improved enforcement and monitoring of a policy in place.Google Scholar

38 Mr Yi Wei, programme officer for Green River, personal interview, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 15 January 2003.Google Scholar

39 Mr Liu Weijia, director of the Foreign Capital Project Management Center under the Sichuan Poverty Alleviation Office, personal interview Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 16 January 2003.Google Scholar

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41 Mr Yang Zaiyi, vice-governor of Dan Zai township, personal interview Guiyang, Guizhou Province, in the office of Mr Wu Xiangqian, director of the Guizhou Ethnic Area Poverty Alleviation Foundation, 22 January 2003.Google Scholar

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43 Mr Li Zhaoyuan, director of Nature Watch, personal interview, Kunming, Yunnan Province, 11 January 2003.Google Scholar

44 Ms Li Wei of New Century of Environmental Protection Science, personal interview, Kunming, Yunnan Province, 8 January 2003.Google Scholar

45 Mr Tan Jingzheng, Ai Hua, personal interview, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 16 January 2003.Google Scholar

46 De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, p. 189.Google Scholar