China's Quest for Political Legitimacy by Guo Baogang;

Author:Guo, Baogang;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781461633129
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic

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* The chapter was written with assistant of Dr. Tang Juan of Shenzhen University who provided some data and shared some of her researches with the author. The author wishes to thank her for her contribution.

Chapter 6

The Environmental “New Deal”

In the previous two chapters, we focused our attention on the fairness and openness of the public policy making process. To further test our hypothesis laid out in Chapter 1, we will get into additional public policy areas, including environmental protection policy, labor policy and health care policy. Our goal is to detect if there is any new trend in these areas that substantiates the shift in political orientation in recent years.

As we pointed out earlier, between the 1980s and 1990s, China’s economic policy underwent major changes. Improving economic efficiency and promoting economic growth are the key themes in the new policies. To that end, many of the administrative reforms were oriented towards reducing wasteful spending, simplifying administrative procedures and regulations, streamlining civil services, and combating official corruption. The regulatory authorities of the central government went through a process of reduction, decentralization, and elimination.

Not surprisingly, the environmental administration followed the same pattern of development. However, the continued environmental degradation after many years of high-speed economic growth has forced the Chinese government to take a fresh look at its environmental administration. The endorsement of the “scientific development perspective" by the 17th CCP Congress in 2007 is a clear indication that the Chinese government is about to engage a paradigm change, and the environmental governance is ready to embark on a new direction.

The recently concluded Beijing Olympic Games is a good example of this new attitude toward environmental protection. People who travelled to Beijing often witnessed an incredible transformation of Beijing’s environment in 2008. Almost overnight, Beijing’s sky became blue again. In order to fulfill its promise made to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), China spent nearly 10 billion U.S. dollars on improving Beijing’s environmental quality. Many drastic measures were taken in the months prior to the sporting events. Coal-filled power stations in the city were converted to gas-burning stations. More than 1,400 old gas stations and 10 oil depots were closed down for good. Another 200 major polluting factories were ordered to shut down temporarily. Capital Steel and Iron, one of the largest steel makers in China, had to relocate its entire production facilities to a new industrial park 143 miles away from Beijing. To reduce automobile emission, traffic was strictly regulated. The authority also expanded its air quality control measures to cities adjacent to Beijing, and suspended productions of some of the heavy-polluting factories nearby.1 Thanks to these efforts, Beijing’s Sulfur Dioxide emission level decreased nearly 13 percent compare with the same period a year ago.2 During the month of August when the games were held, almost half of the month’s air quality in Beijing was rated as excellent and the remaining days were rated as good.

These massive clean-up efforts are unparallel in the history of Olympic Games. It

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