Activism Responding to the Haze
A vivid environmental activism has emerged among the Chinese, many of whom have become alarmed by the country’s serious environmental conditions. According to the Measures on Open Environmental Information for Trial Implementation, adopted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) in 2007, citizens are entitled to request environmental protection agencies for greater disclosure of information, which is now required from both governmental bodies and private enterprises (Xie, 2011).
An increasing number of lawsuits have been filed against environmental protection agencies. The first 10 months of 2009 saw the number of Environmental Administrative Reconsideration cases reach the total number of those that were filed from 1997 until 2007. The majority of the suits result from the bureaucracy established under planned economy (Pan, 2009) and many of them focus on issues concerning land, health threats, urban planning, and estate development (Xie, 2011).
Environmental activism in China is flourishing through the internet, and social networks have a substantial individual effect on environmental activism. The number of web-based environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) and green virtual communities have played a major role in creating social change (Sullivan & Xie, 2009, p.423).
In addition to the use of internet resources, the public has been actively demanding enforcement action from environmental authorities on the identified harmful effects of, among others, noise pollution and water pollution through the use of telephone hotlines and filing of complaints (Brettell, 2003).
Bibliography:
Brettell, A. M. (2003). The politics of public participation and the emergence of environmental proto-movements in China. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland.
Pan, Y. (2009). Complementing environmental administrative reconsideration and litigation to protect public’s interests, on tenth anniversary of enforcing administrative litigation law. Retrieved November 10, 2016. from http://www.cepf.org.cn/Information/200910/t20091014_162328.htm.
Sullivan, S., & Xie, L. (2009). Environmental activism, social networks and the internet. The China Quarterly, 198, 422-432.
Xie, L. (2011). China’s environmental activism in the age of globalization. Asian Politics and Policy, 3(2), 207-224.