Author(s)

Xiaofan Li

Institutional Research and Assessment, Washington DC, USA.

China’s thriving economy takes a toll on its environmental sustainability, and recent decades have witnessed an irreversible degradation in China’s environmental conditions. Meanwhile, the environmental issue in China is embedded in a large and complex political and social context that has been undergoing continual and far-reaching transformations. With an attempt to diagnose the weak link and to shed light on solutions for China’s environmental issue, this article explores and analyzes an array of political and social factors: changes in China’s environmental policies and political orientations, conflicts between economic growth and environmental protection, political decentralization and its impact on the environmental issue, and China’s civil society’s role in public awareness and support for environmental protection.

China; Environmental Protection; Politics; Decentralization; Policies; Civil Society

Li, X. (2013) The Weak Link: Diagnosing Political and Social Factors in China’s Environmental Issue. Chinese Studies, 2, 178-184. doi: 10.4236/chnstd.2013.24029.