Rights and interests, quanyi, are superseding class as the conceptual axis of Chinese law and jurisprudence. Recent legislation highlighting this new social and legal theory has stipulated new law on womens and childrens rights and interests. It has also endorsed an updated conception of the relation between state and society, by which the state is formally required both to provide for newly stipulated civil law protection of rights and interests and to perfect a system of social protection, shehui baozhang zhidu. The latter is to serve as a self–conscious guarantee of the practical enjoyment of rights and interests through broadly based education and social activism. If the leadership of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has formally committed itself to the development and protection of such rights, it remains to be seen how this commitment can be squared with the regimes refurbished mass line focus on comprehensive social control.1

Taiwan's economic performance from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s is regarded as that of an archetypal Asian Newly Industrializing Economy (ANIE). It achieved rapid growth, marked structural change and an exceptional export performance. During the 1980s, however, important changes in the pattern of growth and associated policy challenges became evident. These changes partly reflected the internal evolution of the economy as it began to exhaust both its labour intensive comparative advantage and also, arguably, some of the benefits of the regulated and protective institutional structure that underlay early economic successes.

The story of the post-1950 Taiwan economic miracle has been told many times. Quite a few authors have also dealt with aspects of the environmental degradation which has accompanied this growth. In general the literature places the blame on Taiwan society as a whole. It is critical of the government's slow evolution of regard for environmental protection, industry's lack of effort to assume its responsibilities and a lack of individual citizen concern prior to the 1980s. It is true that Taiwan's economy has grown rapidly since the 1960s. Unfortunately, this growth was linked to a low environmental consciousness and the lack of political will to regulate land use and pollution abatement. It was rooted in plastics, petrochemicals, leather goods, pesticides and other high polluting industries. These industries were attracted to Taiwan in part because of the environmental consciousness growing in the island's major markets, the United States and Japan. Sectors of the government favoured heavy industry as it would help with any efforts for a counter-attack against the Communists on the mainland. Social awareness of environmental issues and discontent with government and corporate management only began to grow in the 1980s and the government has yet to come to grips fully with the problem of environmental degradation. The purpose of this article is to describe the current state of Taiwan's environment, to trace the development of environmental movements on the island and to assess government's capability to salvage the situation.