ARTICLE: “In China, a Lake’s Champion Imperils Himself,” by Joseph Kahn, New York Times, 14 October 2007, p. A1.
This bit says it all:
Senior officials have tried to address environmental woes mostly through pulling the traditional levers of China’s authoritarian system: issuing command quotas on energy efficiency, and emissions reduction; punishing corrupt officials who shield polluters; planting billions of trees across the country to hold back deserts and absorb carbon dioxide.But they do not dare to unleash individuals who want to make China cleaner. Grass-roots environmentalists arguably do more to expose abuses than any edict emanating from Beijing. But they face a political climate that varies from lukewarm tolerance to icy suppression.
But here’s the emerging reality: China’s current set of levers isn’t doing the trick. They need to build an A-to-Z rule set for processing environmental concerns. For now, they too often suppress their field-based grand juries (environmentalists), but without marrying up that dynamic with a far more powerful and independent judiciary, Beijing will lose this battle.
Can such a rule set be built that does not immediately seem to undercut the Party’s supreme leadership? Sure.
And because it can, and because China will fail without it, that system will (and is) being built.
Fast enough?
Nothing happens fast enough in China. But focus on direction, not degree. The rule set emerges because China has no choice. It has chosen development as the key legitimizer to Party rule.
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