China Environmental Law

If you know only one official at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, it’s probably Pan Yue (潘岳). His biography reads like countless other cadres:

Male, Han Nationality, born in April, 1960 in Nanjing City of Jiangsu Province. Doctor of History. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1987. Associate Researcher.

From 1976 to 1982, he served in the 38th Group Army of the PLA and the 13th Division of Railway Corps. In December of 1982, he worked as documenter of Economy Daily and Journalist Group Leader in China Environment News. In October of 1986, he was Deputy Director of Research Section and concurrently Secretary of the Communist Youth League Committee in the State Air Traffic Management Bureau. In February of 1988, he worked as Section Chief of International Liaison Division of Committee of Fangshan District and Vice Director General of the Foreign Trade and Economic Committee of Fangshan District Beijing. From December, 1988 to December, 1989, Vice Chief Editor of China Technical Supervision Newspaper Office. In December of 1989, he became Vice Chief Editor of China Youth Daily. In February of 1993, he worked as Director General of China Youth Research Center. In May of 1994, he was Vice Administrator of the State Administration of State-Owned Assets. In March of 1998, he worked as Vice Administrator and member of the Leading Party Group of the State Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision. In January of 2000, he was Vice Director and member of the Leading Party Group of Office for Economic Restructuring of the State Council. In March of 2003, he was appointed as Vice Minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration and elected as member of the Leading Party Group in SEPA. In March of 2008, he was appointed as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China.

What sets him apart from most other Chinese officials, at least to Western observers, is his use of the press as a tool to achieve his agenda.  That agenda appears to be to advance the cause of environmental protection in China and fight against environmental reactionary forces. But make no mistake, Pan Yue firmly believes that the main enemy is not hide-bound Chinese officials, but rather, ”the fundamental cause [of the global environmental crisis] is the capitalist system.” To the extent he espouses an ideology, it is curious mélange of leftist and traditional Chinese concepts.

Our strengths lie in the rich historical, cultural and theoretical resources we can carry forward. We are in east Asia, we can learn from the experience of combining Confucianism with industrial civilisation, and also draw upon the successful combination of European socialism with western civilisation. Our socialist political theory contains within it the core concept of eco-industrial civilisation - social justice. We are already working tirelessly to make the construction of a socialist environmental culture and ecological civilisation our duty and mission.

This vocal champion of “socialist environmental culture and ecological civilization” has received numerous awards from the Western press. He was named (or at least was nominated for) the New Statesman’s Person of the Year:

His rank may not sound the highest, but it is of sufficient importance to give him a platform while also shielding him. But this son of a military engineer from Jiangsu Province, next door to Shanghai, has not just begun to speak out. He was vocal about the need to reform during his previous career as a journalist. “He often spoke out when he was vice-chief editor of China Youth Daily,” says one grass-roots activist. “Many people attacked him for it. But many appreciated it.” It helps that Pan is very much from the party elite - his wife, from whom he is separated, is the granddaughter of a hero of the communist revolution - but his stand is still risky. “His personal protection must be very good,” comments a colleague.

Actually, Pan Yue’s (some say now “former”) wife is the daughter, not the granddaughter, of a famous general, Liu Huaqing, as noted by the Economist . If you want to learn more about the life of ”gaogan zidi” — a ”high cadre child” check out this fascinating 1998 New York Times article, “U.S. Inquiry Opens Window On the Military Elite of China,” that chronicles the life of General Liu’s daughter (Pan Yue’s wife) and her involvement in Clinton (Bill, not Hillary) fundraising scandals.

Whatever protection these connections afforded, they were apparently not good enough to keep his “powerful enemies” from thwarting his career advancement, according to The Guardian, which named him one of 50 International “Green Heroes” on January 5, 2008:

All this [his environmental activism] has made him some powerful enemies, particularly in energy, steel and construction, who seemed to have won a victory over Pan late last year at the 17th Communist Party Congress where more business-oriented cadres were promoted, but Pan was left a deputy director and must now fight for his political life.

He may also be fighting for his trademark outspokenness.  According to Google News, the name “Pan Yue” generates 159 hits for 2005, 160 hits for 2006, and 276 hits for 2007.  It is hard to get an accurate estimate for 2008 (because of the way Google’s news archiving function works), but here’s a telling fact: search “Pan Yue” in the standard search box and you pull up two hits for the last month. There could, of course, be many reasons (some less sinister than others) for this  phenomenon, but one things for sure, the most well-known champion of environmental protection within the Chinese government is speaking a little less frequently these days.