Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-956mj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-16T22:29:03.284Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Centralizing Trends and Pollution Law Enforcement in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2017

Benjamin van Rooij ,
Qiaoqiao Zhu ,
Li Na  and
Wang Qiliang
Benjamin van Rooij*
Affiliation:
UC Irvine, School of Law.
Qiaoqiao Zhu
Affiliation:
Australia National University.
Wang Qiliang
Affiliation:
Yunnan University.
*
Email: [email protected] (corresponding author).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article analyses centralizing trends that may be able to reduce the negative influence of local protectionism on environmental law enforcement in China. The article finds that as centralizing trends unfolded, enforcement over time has become stricter and more frequent, however with only minor effects in reducing pollution. Moreover it finds a situation of uneven enforcement with richer and more urbanized areas having much stronger and more frequent enforcement than inland areas. Centralizing trends may thus have spurred stronger enforcement, but concurrently allowed for an uneven enforcement. At the same time, the article finds a continued local influence, keeping enforcement too weak to have much effect in reducing pollution and allowing for local interests to shape enforcement into unequal outcomes.

摘要

文章旨在分析中央集权化的趋势是否有可能减少地方保护主义对于中国环境执法所产生的负面影响。研究发现, 随着中央集权化趋势所呈现出来的执法实践正变得更加严格和频繁, 但是对于减少污染所起到的作用甚微。此外, 研究发现, 执法存在不均衡的情形, 即相对于内陆地区, 较富裕、城市化程度较高的地区执法强度更高、更频繁。因此, 中央集权化的趋势有可能刺激出较强的执法, 但同时也可能催生出不均衡的执法实践。与此同时, 研究发现, 地方性的影响仍然持续存在, 使得执法太弱而无法对减少污染产生显著作用, 并且使得地方性的利益塑造出不同等的执法后果。

Keywords

Environmentregulationdecentralizationenforcement环境规制地方分权执法
Type
Special Section on Central–Local Relations and Environmental Governance in China
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 231 , September 2017 , pp. 583 - 606
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2017 

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.)

References

Cai, Yonghsun. 2010. Collective Resistance in China: Why Popular Protests Succeed or Fail. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Zewei. 2007. Lengguan Zhengfu Chuizhiguanli: Ying Heli Huafen Zhongyang Difangjian Zhize Quanxian (A Cold Look at Vertical Management Reform: We Need to Rationally Divide Responsibilities and Competences between the Center and the Local), 14 November 2006 [cited 28 August 2007]. Available from http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2006-11/14/content_5327315.htm.Google Scholar
Dimitrov, Martin K. 2009. Piracy and the State: The Politics of Intellectual Property Rights in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Economy, Elizabeth C. 2004. The River Runs Black. The Environmental Challenge to China's Future. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Fu, Hualing. 2014. “Wielding the Sword: President Xi's New Anti-Corruption Campaign.” University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law Research Paper (2014/030).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furst, Kathinka. 2015. “Leverage: The Regulatory Roles of NGOs against Pollution in China.” Unpublished PhD draft manuscript.Google Scholar
He, Guizhen, Lu, Yonglong, Mol, Arthur P.J. and Beckers, Theo. 2012. “Changes and challenges: China's environmental management in transition.” Environmental Development 3, 25–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, Guizhen, Zhang, Lei, Mol, Arthur P.J., Wang, Tieyu and Lu, Yonglong. 2014. “Why small and medium chemical companies continue to pose severe environmental risks in rural China.” Environmental Pollution 185, 158–167.Google Scholar
Heilmann, S. 2008. “From local experiments to national policy: the origins of China's distinctive policy process.” The China Journal 59, 1–30.Google Scholar
Hildebrandt, Timothy. 2011. “The political economy of social organization registration in China.” The China Quarterly 208, 970–989.Google Scholar
Holbig, Heike. 2004. “The emergence of the campaign to open up the West: ideological formation, central decision-making and the role of the provinces.” The China Quarterly 178, 335–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jahiel, A.R. 1997. “The contradictory impact of reform on environmental protection in China.” The China Quarterly 149, 81–103.Google Scholar
Jahiel, A.R. 1998. “The organization of environmental protection in China.” The China Quarterly 156, 757–787.Google Scholar
Kostka, Genia. 2013. “Environmental protection bureau leadership at the provincial level in China: examining diverging career backgrounds and appointment patterns.” Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning 15(1), 41–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Wanxin, and Higgins, Paul. 2013. “Controlling local environmental performance: an analysis of three national environmental management programs in the context of regional disparities in China.” Journal of Contemporary China 22(81), 409–427.Google Scholar
Lin, Liguo. 2013. “Enforcement of pollution levies in China.” Journal of Public Economics 98, 32–43.Google Scholar
Lin, Wuu-Long, and Chen, Thomas P.. 2004. “China's widening economic disparities and its ‘Go West Program’.” Journal of Contemporary China 13(41), 663–686.Google Scholar
Lo, Carlos W.H., Fryxell, Gerald E. and Rooij, Benjamin Van. 2009. “Changes in regulatory enforcement styles among environmental enforcement officials in China.” Environment and Planning A 41, 2706–23.Google Scholar
Lo, Carlos W.H., and Fryxell, Gerald E.. 2005. “Governmental and societal support for environmental enforcement in China: an empirical study in Guangzhou.” Journal of Development Studies 41(4), 558–588.Google Scholar
Lo, Carlos W.H., Fryxell, Gerald E. and Wong, Wilson Wai-Ho. 2006. “Effective regulations with little effect? The antecedents of the perceptions of environmental officials on enforcement effectiveness in China.” Environmental Management 38(3), 388–410.Google Scholar
Lo, Carlos W.H., and Tang, Shui-Yan. 2006. “Institutional reform, economic changes and local environmental management in China.” Environmental Politics 15(2), 190–210.Google Scholar
Lo, Carlos Wing Hung, and Leung, Sai Wing. 2000. “Environmental agency and public opinion in Guangzhou: the limits of a popular approach to environmental governance.” The China Quarterly 163, 677–704.Google Scholar
Lorentzen, Peter, Landry, Pierre and Yasuda, John. 2014. “Undermining authoritarian innovation: the power of China's industrial giants.” The Journal of Politics 76(1), 182–194.Google Scholar
Ma, X., and Ortolano, L.. 2000. Environmental Regulation in China, Institutions, Enforcement, and Compliance. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Mertha, Andrew C. 2005. “China's ‘soft’ centralization: shifting Tiao/Kuai authority relations.” The China Quarterly 184, 791–810.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagin, Daniel S. 2013. “Deterrence in the twenty-first century.” Crime and Justice 42(1), 199–263.Google Scholar
Plambeck, Erica L., and Taylor, Terry A.. 2015. “Supplier evasion of a buyer's audit: implications for motivating supplier social and environmental responsibility.” Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (articles in advance) , 1–14.Google Scholar
Ran, Ran. 2013. “Perverse incentive structure and policy implementation gap in China's local environmental politics.” Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning 15(1), 17–39.Google Scholar
Sinkule, J.B., and Ortolano, L.. 1995. Implementing Environmental Policy in China. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Swanson, Kate E., Kuhn, Richard G. and Xu, Wei. 2001. “Environmental policy implementation in rural China: a case study of Yuhang, Zhejiang.” Environmental Management 27(4), 481–491.Google Scholar
Tang, Shui-Yan, Lo, Carlos W.H., Cheung, Kai-Chee and Lo, Jack Man-Keung. 1997. “Institutional constraints on environmental management in urban China: environmental impact assessment in Guangzhou and Shanghai.” The China Quarterly 152, 863–874.Google Scholar
Tang, Shui-Yan, Lo, Carlos W.H. and Fryxell, Gerald E.. 2003. “Enforcement styles, organizational commitment, and enforcement effectiveness: an empirical study of local environmental protection officials in urban China.” Environment and Planning 35, 75–94.Google Scholar
Tian, Qunjian. 2004. “China develops its west: motivation, strategy and prospect.” Journal of Contemporary China 13(41), 611–636.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Rooij, Benjamin. 2002. “Implementing Chinese environmental law through enforcement, the Shiwu Xiao and Shuangge Dabiao campaigns.” In Chen, J., Li, Y. and Otto, J.M. (eds.), The Implementation of Law in the People's Republic of China. The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 149–178.Google Scholar
Van Rooij, Benjamin. 2003. “Environmental law enforcement in Sichuan: organization and procedure in comparative perspective.” China Information 17(2), 36–65.Google Scholar
Van Rooij, Benjamin. 2006. Regulating Land and Pollution in China, Lawmaking, Compliance, and Enforcement: Theory and Cases. Leiden: Leiden University Press.Google Scholar
Van Rooij, Benjamin. 2010. “The people vs. pollution: understanding citizen action against pollution in China.” The Journal of Contemporary China 19(63), 55–79.Google Scholar
Van Rooij, Benjamin. 2012. “The people's regulation, citizens and implementation of law in China.” Columbia Journal of Asian Law 25(2), 116–180.Google Scholar
Van Rooij, Benjamin. 2014a. “The campaign enforcement style: Chinese practice in context and comparison.” Paper presented at the Conference on Comparative Law and Regulation, George Washington University, 31 January–1 February 2014.Google Scholar
Van Rooij, Benjamin. 2014b. “Regulation by escalation: unrest, lawmaking, and law enforcement in China.” In Trevaskes, Susan, Nesossi, Elisa, Sapio, Flora and Biddulph, Sarah (eds.), The Politics of Law and Stability in China. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 83–107.Google Scholar
Van Rooij, Benjamin, and Lo, Carlos W.H.. 2010. “A fragile convergence, understanding variation in the enforcement of China's industrial pollution law.” Law & Policy 32(1), 14–37.Google Scholar
Wang, Alex. 2013. “The search for sustainable legitimacy: environmental law and bureaucracy in China.” Harvard Environmental Law Review 37(2), 367–439.Google Scholar
Wang, Alex. 2015. “Chinese state capitalism and the environment.” In Liebman, Benjamin L. and Milhaupt, Curtis J. (eds.), Regulating the Visible Hand. The Institutional Implications of Chinese State Capitalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 251–284.Google Scholar
Zhan, Xueyong, Lo, Carlos Wing-Hung and Tang, Shui-Yan. 2014. “Contextual changes and environmental policy implementation: a longitudinal study of street-level bureaucrats in Guangzhou, China.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 24(4), 1005–35.Google Scholar
Zhang, Lei. 2002. Ecologizing Industrialization in Chinese Small Towns, PhD diss. defended at Wageningen University, Wageningen.Google Scholar