New channels for popular participation in China: The case of an environmental protection movement in Nanjing

Abstract

In the last five years China has passed new regulations and formulated new policies to target urban smog. Accordingly, several cities have sought to improve their public transportation systems to reduce the number of motor vehicles on the streets. In 2011 in Nanjing, during the construction of Line No. 3 of the subway system, several long-standing London plane trees in the city's historical area were targeted for transplantation. This article focuses on the tree-hugging protest which was triggered by this event in 2011-12. While protesters framed their actions as tree protection and heritage conservation, this article is particularly interested in participatory approaches available to protesters, in light of certain recent developments in the environmental regulatory framework in China. Specifically, this article analyses a relatively new and less well-known tool for popular participation known as 'green assessment'.

Emerging environmental Multi-Level Governance in China? Environmental protests, public participation and local institution-building

“…The Chinese state has thus diffused authority sideways and downwards. In the ongoing process of state reform, actors from within ‘state, market and civil society are having to renegotiate their own spaces and the relations between them, each expecting more efficiency and legitimacy’ (Grano and Zhang, 2016: 175).…”

“…Since the late 1990s, the central government has recognized the potential of NGOs and the wider public for helping the enforcement of environmental regulations by reporting violations (Lo and Fryxell, 2005: 563, 565–566). Furthermore, concerned by the growing number of protests, ‘authorities have started experimenting with the creation of participatory channels to involve citizens in siting decisions and in the planning phase of controversial facilities’ (Grano and Zhang, 2016: 167). As Martens (2006: 212) argued:Considering the existing implementation deficit in environmental regulation and the inability of the administrative system to monitor and guide environmental developments in all regions and sectors of this vast nation, one of the state’s main concerns should be to promote and enable public participation in environmental management.However, the introduction of new policies and legislations that endorse public participation does not necessarily have immediate effect.…”

“…Continued lack of meaningful public participation has led to environmental protests in many places. Indeed, the authorities’ increased willingness to involve citizens in planning decisions for polluting or otherwise controversial development projects have largely been spurred by the growing number of protests (Grano and Zhang, 2016: 167).…”

“…While different scholars have coined different terms, the terms all highlight adjustments in state-society relations as the Chinese state experiments with new models of governance that allow a greater degree of public participation. Examples of such experiments include deliberative polling (Fishkin, He and Siu 2006), participatory budgeting (He 2011), price hearings (Zhang 2013), strike negotiations (Hess 2009), various forms of online platforms for netizen to air their opinions (Qiang 2011), and joint government-citizen commissions (Grano and Zhang 2016). Jing and Gong (2012) have suggested that by engaging with non-state actors in novel ways, governments are engaging in 'managed social innovation.…”

China’s changing environmental governance: Enforcement, compliance and conflict resolution mechanisms for public participation

“…The article by Grano and Zhang studies the effectiveness of one specific participatory mechanism set up for the public in the city of Nanjing as local authorities attempted to incorporate citizens' wishes in their plans for urban renewal. 18 The article deals with a fairly novel kind of protest for China, a tree-huggers' campaign, which started after local authorities decided to axe long-standing (instead of: several or maybe "several longstanding"?) trees to make space for new underground stations of a metro line.…”