China: Global Environmental Governance
The opening of China, the adoption of neo-liberal economic reforms by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1980s, and China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) signal a new era in international relations between China and the world's major trading partners like the United States and the European Union (EU). Globalization and China's desire to reinvigorate its stalled economy led to rapid industrialization, due to such reforms and increased government and foreign investment. Today China is a global economic powerhouse due to these reforms that have spawned double-digit economic growth in the country for over a decade. Along with industrialization and economic prosperity; however, come serious environmental challenges for Chinese leaders, from rampant water pollution to scarcity of potable water.
Now that it is developing rapidly, China is experiencing environmental issues on a scale that matches its industrial and economic development. As one environmental analyst explains of this phenomenon: "Countries cannot enjoy sustained rapid growth without experiencing environmental damage. That has been the history of all the industrialized nations. With a growing population of 1.3 billion and over 20 years' income growth averaging nine per cent per annum, China is no exception."[1] The primary culprit of pollution in the country is the burning of fossil fuels, one outcome of which is the nearly black skies above China's capital, an ominous and continual symbol of the cost of progress.
China's economy growth and development over the past twenty years has been remarkable. Considered an economic miracle; once neo-liberal economic reforms and China's borders were opened to globalization the Chinese economy has never looked back. The intense industrialization occurring in China to sustain domestic and global trade and ensure a robust economy is having significant...