China Environmental Law

The internet connection here at CELB is impossibly slow today.  The half of the CELB staff that is not usually engaged in online gaming (that would be the female half), appears to have switched from IMing to watching Olympic-related streaming videos or downloading the entire opening ceremony.  As a result, our research efforts have been stymied.  We had hoped to find out, for instance, who the “dancer Dells” was and why sinister Czech forces were trying to kill the apparently resilient him or her, but the Xinhua story “Czech Scientists Test New Way to Kill Dancer Dells” would simply not load.

Update: Oh, those were “cancer cells” the Czechs were trying to kill.  China Radio International has changed the headline on the story itself (who says CELB isn’t read in high places?), but not in the story index box:

Thus, we will only note a couple of easily accessible environmental articles from the official Chinese press which are obviously designed for the consumption of visiting media.

First up a handy “factbox“ on environmental protection in China, which notes things like the “investment in the treatment of environmental pollution” for 2006: 256.6 billion yuan (about 37.5 billion U.S. dollars)-significantly less than the total amount spent on hosting the Olympics.

The second one “Winds of change for China’s environment protection“ stresses the concern of the “central leadership” for environmental protection, but notes the challenges it faces in getting the job done.  It contends that raising the national environmental protection agency to full ministerial status

does not guarantee results, as many insiders observed, because the environmental protection bureaus at provincial level and below are under the direct leadership of local governments, who are in charge of our personnel changes and funding. Therefore, it is not always practical to expect a local environmental protection bureau to work independently and monitor the government.

While the central government may have a strong will when it comes to the environmental protection, the lack of cooperation at the local level can be a big problem. Local governments lack both the incentives and the capacity to implement well-developed projects. High-level Chinese leaders often promise “clean water and clean air for everybody,” but this simple-sounding goal is, in reality, not an easy job.

The overlapping administrative function of several departments is another problem. MEP needs the coordination of many departments like agricultural, forestry, water resources, among others. In the way, pressure on MEP comes from everywhere, as its move might touch vested interests of other departments.

Although elevation of the environmental protection administration might not be a cure-all, it has still sparked people’s hope.

This is an accurate assessment of the environmental enforcement challenges in China as far as it goes.  It starkly highlights a real issue, however.  We’ve all heard the casual China observer note with a wink, nod, and knowing chuckle “if the top leadership in Beijing wants to get something done, it gets it done.”  When we apply this bit of China-wisdom to the environmental enforcement situation, we would have to conclude that the “top leadership” does not want effective enforcement of China’s environmental laws.

The “wisdom,” however, is specious.  The “top leadership” wants effective environmental enforcement, but it is not willing (because of a host of other pressing needs) to provide either the carrots or the sticks necessary to ensure that its desire is uniformly carried out at the provincial level and below.  And, for the time being, it serves its interests to make the local officials the fall guys.

The “top leadership” wants a lot of things: for instance, it wants inflation under control, it also wants increased energy efficiency (which will have beneficial environmental effects).  The most effective way to increase energy efficiency is to let the market set the price of energy, but to remove energy price controls now would increase the risk of inflation.  It is best not to rely on perceived “top leadership” wants, until you know what the competing desires are.