Engagement or control? The impact of the Chinese environmental protection bureaus’ burgeoning online presence in local environmental governance

Abstract

Since 2011, Chinese environmental authorities have undertaken a project of "occupying" online spaces, with a particular focus on social media like Weibo. These activities have been analysed alternatively as a promising attempt to improve environmental governance by increasing citizen engagement and transparency, or as a new tool of control over online environmental discourses. However, empirical research into the practices of state microblogs is rare, and the implications of their emergence for local environmental governance remain poorly understood. Using a combination of online and offline investigation methods, this paper analyses the use of microblogs by 172 local environmental authorities in Shandong Province, whose multi-level EPB microblogging system is seen as a model for other provinces, testing whether this system improves environmental governance, and whether this objective is impeded by practices aimed at controlling online environmental discourse. We find limited evidence of improved environmental governance that would be attested by enhanced information disclosure and active citizen engagement. Instead, EPB communication appears mostly insular, and obstructed by floods of diversionary content and propaganda. We suggest that while these behaviours are likely driven by misaligned state incentive structures and fears of triggering social unrest, they also support the goal of discursive control by occupation.

Comparison and Research on the Applicability of Combining Information of Chinese and Foreign Literary Genres Based on Data Analysis

“…Since the 21st century, artificial intelligence techniques have evolved as computer performance has improved and massive amounts of data have become available. In 2012, AlexNet, designed by Hinton and his student Alex Krzyzewski, won the image classification competition [10], and since then, deep learning has become increasingly well known. Deep learning is a branch of machine learning that has achieved great success in breaking through traditional machine learning bottlenecks such as image recognition, audio processing, and natural language processing and has opened a new era of artificial intelligence.…”

The impact of reusable tableware packaging combined with environmental propaganda on consumer behaviour in online retail

“…Since 2011, China's Environmental Protection Bureaus has increasingly emphasized the importance of Environmental Protection and implemented several measures to control the environment. To raise public awareness of environmental protection, increasing publicity is an important part of the strategy [12,13]. Chinese people have a high degree of acceptance of public interest publicity to promote the environment.…”

Information, technology, and digitalization in China’s environmental governance

“…Furthermore, several contributions show that the state continues to be the biggest presence in environmental governance in China. In fact, scholars such as Goron and Bolsover (2019) show that the latest technological advances have increased the capability of the Chinese government far more than that of the civil society, tipping the power balance away from-not closer to-the latter. Finally, virtually all of the contributors show that notwithstanding the major developments in the availability, transparency, and quality of data, information asymmetry between different institutional actors remains deeply entrenched in China.…”

“…Finally, the remaining two articles directly challenge the conventional wisdom that with better and more data, improved monitoring, and augmented technology-not to mention the apparent stronger political will-the Chinese government's environmental performance will automatically improve. The article by Goron and Bolsover (2019) critically examines how Chinese environmental authorities use microblogs to dominate online spaces and shape online discourses about the environment. In their content analysis of local EPBs' microblogs in Shandong province, they find limited evidence of meaningful flows of environmental information or genuine interactions between EPBs and local citizens.…”