Department of Politics

University of York

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Examinations Number: Y8195221

Module: Green Politics

Essay Deadline: 22nd April 2014

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Question: Evaluate the success of the environmental campaigns in

China. Compare at least two different environmental campaigns. Word count: 2920 Abstract Studies on the campaigns in China mainly focus on issues at the macro level, like state control, legitimacy or human rights. Few studies have examined the role of the communicative technologies in collective contention from the meso- and micro-level (Huang and Yip, 2012). Internet, mobiles phones and bulletin boards had played a huge role in the success of environmental campaigns in China. These communicative technologies helped local residents to organize themselves and participate effectively in the government decision-making process. It is important when evaluating the success of environmental campaigns in China, to recognize the importance of the communicative technologies in the campaign process. This essay, through evaluating the Liulitun anti-incinerator protests, Panyu anti-incinerator protest and Xiamen anti-PX factory protest will illustrate that the use of communicative technology is an important factor for successful environmental campaigns in China. Introduction Environmental issues have gradually been attracting wider and wider public attention, both nationally and internationally. Rising concerns over how to deal with current climate change and future resource management have become the central topic, alongside economic development. People who are affected by climate change have increasingly started to resort to political and legal action to protect their self-interests. Environmental campaigns are therefore seen as an important mechanism for effective public claims. There are various ways to evaluate the success of environmental campaigns. In the UK, the success of the Green’s protests has been defined and identified in terms of capacity building, and the use of protest tactics among the broader public is also creating a significant legacy (Plows, 2008). In France, environmental campaigns were once staged as demonstrations of serious, responsible, collective Republican citizenship (Goherty and Hayes). The successful environmental campaigns in China have significant involvement of communicative technologies. Internet and mobile phones effectively collected resistances in the campaigns. While the questions of what features do successful environmental campaigns have in common, what role does the communicative technology played in the Chinese environmental campaigns, how does the Internet, mobiles and bulletin boards successfully organized people to effectively participate in the government decision-making were raised. My argument in this essay is that when evaluating the common

features of the successful environmental campaigns in China, communicative technologies have played huge roles in the campaign process. They are important factors for environmental campaign to achieve success in China. This is because high technology-mediated communications allow people to participate freely in the campaign process. There are other factors which are also important for achieving a successful environmental campaign in China, such as the involvement of professional scientists and non-governmental organizations. However this essay will mainly focus on communicative technologies. This essay will investigate three successful environmental campaigns in China: the Liulitun anti-incinerator protest in Beijing, the Panyu anti-incinerator protest in Guangzhou and the Xiamen anti-PX factory protest. This essay concentrates on the investigation of common features among these three protests, and illustrates the Internet, mobile phones and bulletin boards are an important vehicle for collective action in the environmental campaigns. Communicative technologies not only facilitate community participation, but also help to create large, dense networks of weak social ties in which they act as a co-ordination tool in the campaign process of collective action (Hampton, 2003) and have less political constraints as they are easily accessible. This essay begins by considering what features the Liulitun anti-incinerator protest and the Panyu anti-incinerator protest and Xiamen anti-PX factory protest have in common. Then this essay will emphasis the importance of the Internet, mobile phones and bulletin boards in the campaigns, as they all played a huge role in organizing process. To conclude, the success of each environmental campaign in China cannot be separated from the use of communicative technologies, because they not only provide an information-disclosure platform but also a discussion platform (Huang and Yip, 2012) which helps local residents to form campaigns. Section One: Liulitun Anti-incinerator Protest As China rapidly urbanizes, many cities are building incinerators to try to reduce the growing pressure from the rising volumes of municipal waste in landfills (Xu and Lang, 2013). In 2011, Beijing’s population of nearly 20 million produced about 18,000 tons of solid waste each day (Nie, 2011). With growing wealth and a rising number of people living in the city, the volume of waste has been growing by about 8% per year (Nie, 2011). About 90% of household garbage in Beijing goes to landfills, which take up 33 hectares of land a year. At the current rate, all of Beijing’s landfills will be filled to capacity in four years at the current pace (Nie, 2011). Building a waste incinerator therefore has become the inevitable choice. However, increasing public awareness and knowledge about the air pollution produced by incinerators gives local residents the chance to protest against it. This is especially so since 2005 when the population of professionals, IT engineers, and scientists (Xu and

Lang, 2013) with academic backgrounds increased in the district, making the tendency to set up a protest even stronger. Liulitun, is a population dense area, with over 250,000 people living within 5km of the incinerator site, with the Miyun-to-Beijing water channel that supplies Beijing’s drinking water, and many historical sites and universities, so that it undeniably known as an environmentally sensitive area (Johnson, 2013). The Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau approved the incinerator project’s Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) in November 2005, with construction scheduled to start in March 2007, to ensure completion before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It asserted that the incinerator was safe and the proper scientific and administrative procedures had been followed. The project was part of city’s waste management plan, and would go ahead as scheduled (Beijing News, 2009) as part of the 11th Five-Year Plan. Residents did not believe what the government had stated, however, so they started taking action against it. This was done using xinfang and shangfang (‘letters and visits’) channels, which involved petitioning the government department in person through letters and emails, and via phone calls in order to express dissatisfaction about the incinerator project and highlight their suspicions of the arbitrary and ‘unscientific’ decisions-making processes that they believed took place in the case of the Liulitun site (Johnson, 2013). At the beginning, these actions did not have a major influence on the project. On 5 June 2007, 1000 residents converged on the State Environmental Protection Administration’s (SEPA) headquarters in Beijing demanding action from the government (World Environmental Day). They were dressed in identical T-shirts displaying the slogan ‘Oppose the construction of the Liulitun incinerator plant’ (Xu and Lang, 2013). This proved to be an important turning point as SEPA Vice-Minister Pan Yue was given responsibility for overseeing the Liulitun case, and SEPA announced that there would be an ‘administrative reconsideration’ of the project (Johnson, 2013), which led to a postponement, pending studies and more wide-ranging consultations (Xu and Lang, 2013). In 2009, the residents coordinated a further set of actions, followed by the released government report on the relaunched incinerator project in Liulitun (Xu and Lang, 2013). Finally, in late 2010, the Haidian District Government announced plans to construct an incinerator, apparently in lieu of the Liulitun incinerator, at the much less densely populated site of Sujiatuo, and in early 2011, over four years since the project was announced, officials confirmed that the Liulitun incinerator would not be built (Johnson, 2013). This Liulitun anti-incinerator protest in Beijing was considered a successful environmental campaign in China. It not only effectively claimed local residents’ interest through lawful mechanisms but also drew wider public involvement. Under the Chinese government’s central planning system, the Liulitun environmental campaign successfully used grassroots resources and

gathered them up to create a stronger force to oppose government policy. In order to achieve this, the use of communicative technologies are significant because it created a platform for local residents to express their concerns, ideas and learn environmental knowledge. The Internet community bulletin boards (BBs) not only helped residents to share materials and vent opinions but also easily accessible, and can be a useful source of information for campaigners seeking to learn from future (Johnson, 2013). When evaluating the Liulitun anti-incinerator protest, the wide involvement of professionals and academics in the local area has also been acknowledged, as these professionals and academics had knowledge about the effects and influence of the incinerators, they spread their concerns and environmental knowledge to other people through communicative technologies. Information spread easily and quickly through the Internet, mobile phones and bulletin boards, which were difficult for government to take controls. Xu and Lang (2013) think that the skillful opposition of a coalition of residents in an elite high-technology district in Beijing, supported by several current and former officials in environmental agencies in Beijing, led to the successful blocking of the project at that location. This could be an additional factor for the Liulitun protest to achieve success. Section Two: Panyu Anti-incinerator Protest The Liulitun anti-incinerator protest in Beijing stimulated and influenced anti-incinerator protests in other places in China, especially in Panyu, Guangzhou. A new waste-to-energy incinerator was proposed and approved by the Panyu authorities in 2004, because officials noted that existing waste disposal, which consisted of two landfills, would not be big enough to process the 2,200 tons of waste estimated to be generated daily by 2010 (Zhao, 2011). In 2006, the Guangzhou Planning Bureau approved that the location for the incinerator could be sited in a densely populated area (Xu and Lang, 2013). Ye Zhiwen, a deputy Director of Panyu District’s Urban Landscape Planning Bureau emphasized that there were not enough land resources to contain the rising garbage, therefore building an incinerator was just an unavoidable strategy necessary to meet the demand (Zhao, 2011). In 2009, 10,000 residents signed a petition, protesting about the plan to build the incinerator (Yangcheng Evening News, 2009). Soon after, about 1000 residents gathered outside the building to appeal for a more transparent Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), and for a cancellation of the project. The Panyu District Government announced that it would delay the project until December of 2012 to allow for an environmental assessment that would involves public participation. Panyu District Party Secretary, Tan Yinghua suggested to mobilize all the residents in Panyu to discuss the location and construction of the incinerator (Zhao, 2011).

The Panyu protesters were aware of the success of the Liulitun protest in Beijing, and studied documents produced by the Liulitun protesters in order to better research their own case (Zhao, 2011). It is not difficult to see the connection between the Liulitun protest and the Panyu protest as the Liulitun protest demonstrated a clear and effective template for the Panyu protests to copy and follow, especially the use of communicative technologies. In contrast to the Liulitun anti-incinerator protest, there were two major reasons for the success of the Panyu anti-incinerator protest: first, with the Liulitun protest, there was massive public involvement, including journalists and editors from local media in Guangzhou. This gave the Panyu grassroots protesters a strong ally who could express concerns and resonate with other people around China. China Central Television (CCTV), for example, as one of the most influential national TV networks provided at least eight reports on the case in November and December of 2009, and ‘People’s Daily’ also reported the controversy (Xu and Lang, 2013). The Guangzhou police were powerless to prevent stories about the protests from appearing in the national media, Internet, mobile and bulletin board messages and from spreading. The media activities in fact created obstacles for government to take effective control. The protest had fewer constraints from the local government as they were able to express their opinions freely through the communicative technologies and medias. Second, local residents also gained huge support from the scientists who supported the Liulitun anti-incinerator protest. These people with professional backgrounds provided useful information, environmental knowledge, and also technical knowledge; this helped them build up effective protest mechanisms through the use of official language in the campaign. The Panyu campaign was a successful case in which the campaign led to a cancellation of the project at the original site, despite the government’s initial determination to build it (Shi, 2012, Wang et al. 2012). It is important that we recognize the inter-connectedness and common features among these two grassroots protests. Firstly, they both involved wide public support during the campaigning process; secondly, more importantly, in order to achieve a wide public involvement, the use of communicative technology such as the Internet, mobiles phones, bulletin boards and other media channels helped local residents access the campaign more easily. The help from scientists and professionals also gave both campaigns a driving force, not only because people then gained more ideas and knowledge about the air pollution, but also because they learned how to more effectively protect their rights. In both cases, individuals and groups organized themselves and worked together to voice their concerns and change decisions that would have led to negative environmental impacts (Li, et al., 2012). The massive influence they brought to the society gave them opportunities to become involved in government decision-making processes in which they could claim their rights.

Section Three: Xiamen anti-PX Factory Protest Paraxylene (PX), is used in the manufacture of polyester; it is a toxin that causes skin and eye irritation, and in large doses can cause nerve damage (Larson, 2011). In 2006, in Xiamen a large petrochemical (Paraxylene, PX for short) factory passed the environmental impact assessment (EIA). However, at the same time, a proposal for developing the neighboring areas into a new city center with residential buildings had been put forward (Huang and Yip, 2012). Huang and Yip argued that these contradictory plans sowed the seeds of social conflict and triggered residents’ complaints against the construction of the chemical plant, which people thought would damage the environment. Individuals and groups organized themselves and worked together to voice their concerns and change decisions that would have negative environmental impacts (Li, et al, 2012). However the authorities blocked channels for the expression of public opinion, so the citizens had no alternative but to take to the streets (Zhao, 2007). In March 2007, Zhao Yufen, a professor of chemistry at Xiamen University, launched a public campaign, which gathered 105 members of the Chinese People’s consultative conference (CPCC), and suggested moving the PX factory project away from resident dense area. Later that year, two mass demonstrations were held on 1st and 2nd June 2007, with an estimated 10,000 participants involved (Huang and Yip, 2012). Before the demonstration, more than one million Xiamen citizens sent out text messages opposing the PX chemical factory project. All contained the same warning: “Taiwanese businessman Chen Yuhao’s Xinglu Group has invested in a joint venture project to build a chemical factory to manufacture paraxylene (PX) in Haicang District. Making this deadly poison (here) would be like mean that in the future, the people of Xiamen would live with leukemia and deformed children” (Zhao, 2007). On 7th June, this public protest led the Xiamen city government to take the suggestion of the SEPA, and announce plans to conduct another environmental assessment before making a final decision on the PX project. The Xiamen city government also opened an online voting system for people to participate in decision-making process, with 55,376 votes opposing the PX project versus 3078 votes supporting it. Finally on 9th January 2009, the Ministry of Environment Protection approved the EIA reports, and announced that the PX projects would be relocated to Zhangzhou, Fujian province (Ministry of Environmental Protection, 2009). The development of the Internet, and the spread of information contributed to the growth of civic consciousness among China’s citizens (Zhao, 2007) especially in the case of the Xiamen anti-PX factory protest. However the Chinese government has made every effort to conceal the growing social contradictions behind China’s economic boom by blocking access to the Internet, online discussion forums, blogs and other methods citizens use to petition the authorities and express their opinions (Zhao, 2007). The efficiency of the involvement in the government decision-making process is still weak. In

Xiamen anti-PX factory protest, the authorities were unable to stop countless spontaneous protests, as the campaign was enormous in its public involvement and impact. Therefore Xiamen residents’ actions against the government’s PX chemical factory project have alarmed the authorities so much that the city government has announced a “postponement” in the construction of the chemical factory. Demonstrators standing up for their rights have once again scored a seminal victory (Zhao, 2007). Conclusion Since the reform and opening up policy in China, commercial interests have mainly dominated the project-planning process, often with little regard for environmental concern or public opinion (Johnson, 2010). However with the emergence of the Internet, mobiles and high technologies, people have started to express their concerns and protect their rights by using such technologies to build campaigns, protests and petitions. This is not only because they are easily accessible but also because they provide a grassroots space where people can communicate without many constraints from the government. Through the use of the communicative technology, people are able to demonstrate and to organize their environmental discontent, and ensure that participatory rules are not confined to the statute books, in order to advance formal participatory governance in China (Johnson, 2010). When evaluating the success of the environmental campaigns in China, it is important to emphasis the use of the Internet, mobile phones and bulletin boards. They are an important driving force for a successful environmental campaign, because they are accessed and spread easily, and the government struggles to keep control of it. The communicative technologies hugely contributed to the campaign process as they provided the discussion and information exchange platform, they also mobilized the residents and amplified the opinions from the mass media, which are essential for not only environmental campaigns, but also other types of campaigns as well, to achieve success. The grassroots organized Liulitun and Panyu anti-incinerator protests, and the Xianmen anti-PX factory protests all used communicative technologies effectively and achieved certain a level of success. They also significantly influenced the efficiency of the campaign and the involvement of local residents in the government decision-making process. Among the three cases listed above, this essay has emphasized the essential role of communicative technologies in the successful environmental campaigns in China, and what they have brought to the campaign processes. To some extent, these three successful protests provided valuable experiences and knowledge to future environmental campaigns.

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