Profiling the Victims: public awareness of pollution-related harm in China

Journal of Contemporary China

Volumn 23, Issue 86, 2014, Pages 314-329

  Munro, Neil ^a,b,c,d  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH   (United Kingdom)

^c UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE   (United Kingdom)

^d UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84894262603     PISSN: 10670564     EISSN: 14699400     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2013.832532     Document Type: Article

References (98)

1. Recent examples include Ethan D. Schoolman and Chunbo Ma, 'Migration, class and environmental inequality: exposure to pollution in China's Jiangsu province', Ecological Economics 75, (2012), pp. 140-151
2. Lee Liu, 'Environmental poverty, a decomposed environmental Kuznets curve, and alternatives: sustainability lessons from China', Ecological Economics 73, (2012), pp. 86-92
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4. Chunbo Ma, 'Who bears the environmental burden in China-an analysis of the distribution of industrial pollution sources?', Ecological Economics 69(9), (2010), pp. 1869-1876.
5. One survey-based study looked at the relationship between pollution and wellbeing-see Russell Smyth et al., 'A study of the impact of environmental surroundings on personal well-being in urban China using a multi-item wellbeing indicator', Population& Environment 32(4), (2011), pp. 353-375.
6. Bryan Tilt, 'Perceptions of risk from industrial pollution in China: a comparison of occupational groups', Human Organization 65(2), (2006), pp. 115-127.
7. Jennifer Holdaway, 'Environment and health in China: an introduction to an emerging research field', Journal of Contemporary China 19(63), (2010), pp. 1-22
8. Jennifer Holdaway, 'Environment and health research in China: the state of the field', The China Quarterly 214, (2013), pp. 255-282.
9. For example, across eight different types of pollution, a median of 73% agreed or strongly agreed that pollution was a serious problem in Guangzhou according to a survey with 916 respondents carried out in five urban districts in October 1996. See Carlos Wing Hung Lo and Sai Wing Leung, 'Environmental agency and public opinion in Guangzhou: the limits of a popular approach to environmental governance', China Quarterly 163, (2000), p. 688.
10. For similar results see also Koon-Kwai Wong, 'Greening of the Chinese mind: environmentalism with Chinese characteristics', Asia-Pacific Review 12(2), (2005), pp. 39-57
11. Paul G. Harris, 'Environmental perspectives and behavior in China', Environment and Behavior 38(1), (2006), pp. 5-21.
12. A five-city survey in Liaoning with 5,996 respondents attempted a corporatist approach to sample design, producing six sub-samples representing residents, policy-makers, teachers, students, staff of industrial enterprises and farmers. Whilst confirming that concern about pollution is widespread, it found only one important difference between the groups in levels of concern-students were more concerned about global climate change compared to the other groups. See Peijun Li, Frank Stagnitti, Zongqiang Gong et al., 'Environmental quality: issues and causes of deterioration-a survey on environmental awareness among the public in Liaoning province, China', International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology 16(3), (2009), p. 146.
13. William L. F. Felstiner, Richard L. Abel and Austin Sarat, 'The emergence and transformation of disputes: naming, blaming, claiming', Law & Society Review 15(3/4), (1981), pp. 631-654.
14. Kathinka Fürst, Access to Justice in Environmental Disputes: Opportunities and Obstacles for Chinese Pollution Victims (University Of Oslo, 2008)
15. Rachel E. Stern, 'From dispute to decision: suing polluters in China', China Quarterly 206, (2011), pp. 294-312
16. Benjamin van Rooij, 'The people vs. pollution: understanding citizen action against pollution in China', Journal of Contemporary China 19(63), (2010), pp. 55-77.
17. CGSS has also made available the 2003, 2005 and 2008 surveys, but these do not include the dependent variable analysed here.
18. Lulu Li and Yanjie Bian, China General Social Survey 2006 (Beijing: National Survey Research Centre at Renmin University of China, 2006). CGSS is sponsored by the China Social Science Foundation. The author appreciates the assistance in providing the data by the institutes and individuals aforementioned, but all views expressed here are the author's own.
19. MEP, State of the Environment 2006 (Beijing: Ministry of Environmental Protection, 2006).
20. Susmita Dasgupta and David Wheeler, 'Citizen complaints as environmental indicators: evidence from China', World Bank Policy Research Working Papers no. 1704, (1997), pp. 13, 21.
21. Anna Brettell, 'Channelling dissent: the institutionalization of environmental complaint resolution', in Peter Ho and Richard L. Edmonds, eds, China's Embedded Activism: Opportunities and Constraints of a Social Movement (London and New York: Routledge, 2008), p. 122.
22. Dasgupta and Wheeler, 'Citizen complaints as environmental indicators', p. 21.
23. Brettell, 'Channelling dissent', p. 122. We should be cautious about how this relationship plays out at the level of particular communities. EPB officials informed Zhang that in the context of the green bounty programme in Fuyang City, many of the informants were farmers, and very few were whistle blowers from within enterprises. It appears that Fuyang residents were less likely to complain if they benefited financially from polluting enterprises.
24. Xuehua Zhang, 'Green bounty hunters: engaging Chinese citizens in local environmental enforcement', China Environment Series 11, (2011), p. 147.
25. Dasgupta and Wheeler, 'Citizen complaints as environmental indicators', p. 11.
26. Air pollution, for example, is generally worse in the cities whereas non-point source contamination of soil and water is more frequently a rural problem. See Holdaway, 'Environment and health research in China', p. 258.
27. Field research tends to show that rural dwellers have sophisticated understandings of the problems of pollution but don't always feel empowered or motivated to fight against it. See Anna Lora-Wainwright, 'The inadequate life: rural industrial pollution and lay epidemiology in China', The China Quarterly 214, (2013), pp. 302-320.
28. Tilt, 'Perceptions of risk from industrial pollution in China'.
29. van Rooij, 'The people vs. pollution', p. 63f.
30. Pieter Tijmes and Reginald Luijf, 'The sustainability of our common future-an inquiry into the foundations of an ideology', Technology in Society 17(3), (1995), p. 335.
31. Albert O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970), p. 53.
32. Thomas Johnson, 'Environmentalism and NIMBYism in China: promoting a rules-based approach to public participation', Environmental Politics 19(3), (2010), pp. 440ff.
33. See National & Fujian Province Bureaux of Statistics, Fujian Tongji Nianjian 2011 [Fujian Statistical Yearbook 2011] (Beijing: China Statistics Press, 2011), p. 565.
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35. Chunmei Li, 'Chengzhen Jumin Gongzhong Canyu Yu Taidu Shizheng Yanjiu-Yi Chengdu Shi Wei Li' ['Empirical research on urban residents' public participation and attitudes-Chengdu as an example'], Journal of China National School of Administration 5, (2006), p. 69. Unfortunately, this article does not give full details of the survey.
36. Jiangang Zhu and Peter Ho, 'Not against the state, just protecting residents' interests: an urban movement in a Shanghai neighbourhood', in Ho and Edmonds, eds, China's Embedded Activism, p. 167.
37. M. Kent Jennings, 'Political participation in the Chinese countryside', American Political Science Review 91 (2), (1997), p. 369.
38. Zhu and Ho, 'Not against the state, just protecting residents' interests', p. 156.
39. Kevin J. O'Brien and Lianjiang Li, Rightful Resistance in Rural China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)
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41. Johnson, 'Environmentalism and NIMBYism in China'.
42. O'Brien and Li, Rightful Resistance in Rural China, p. 85.
43. Alford et al., 'The human dimensions of pollution policy implementation', p. 505.
44. Dasgupta and Wheeler, 'Citizen complaints as environmental indicators', p. 21.
45. Zhang, 'Green bounty hunters', p. 150.
46. Jing, 'Environmental protests in rural China', p. 199ff.
47. John Zaller, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
48. Zhang, 'Green bounty hunters', p. 148.
49. Ronald Inglehart, Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society (Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 1990)
50. Ronald Inglehart, Modernization and Postmodernization Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997).
51. See Ronald Inglehart, 'Public support for environmental protection: objective problems and subjective values in 43 societies', PS: Political Science and Politics 28(1), (1995), pp. 57-72.
52. Zhengxu Wang, 'Postmodern values in seven Confucian societies: political consequences of changing world views', Japanese Journal of Political Science 8(3), (2007), pp. 348 and 355f.
53. Jing, 'Environmental protests in rural China', p. 201ff.
54. Pippa Norris, 'Conclusions: the growth of critical citizens and its consequences', in Pippa Norris, ed., Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Governance (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)
55. P. Norris, Democratic Deficit: Critical Citizens Revisited (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
56. Soonhee Kim, 'Public trust in government in Japan and South Korea: does the rise of critical citizens matter?', Public Administration Review 70(5), (2010), p. 807.
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58. John J. Kennedy, 'Maintaining popular support for the Chinese Communist Party: the influence of education and the state-controlled media', Political Studies 57(3), (2009), p. 527.
59. For example, Harbin bore the brunt of a November 2005 benzene pollution disaster, which it took the authorities ten days to acknowledge publicly. See Robert Marquand, 'Chinese decry toxic cover-up', Christian Science Monitor 98(2), (2005), pp. 1-11.
60. Using the Bernoulli model specification included in the HLM 6 programme. See Stephen W. Raudenbush and Anthony S. Bryk, Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002), ch. 10 for details of the procedure.
61. For descriptive statistics of all the variables included in the model plus basic demographics and city-level pollution statistics, see the Appendix. A longer list of all variables tested is available from the author.
62. As a check on whether the reduced sample behaves differently to the full sample, a separate logistic regression model was developed using the full sample without the city-level indicators. The model confirms the findings reported here with minor variations: details available from the author. For a comparison of descriptive statistics of the full sample with the reduced sample, see the Appendix.
63. In the northern city of Harbin, 93% of respondents identified as pollution victims, even though the industrial waste water statistic of 3.4 tonnes per capita is on the low side. This high level of identification as a victim may have resulted from the November 2005 benzene disaster noted above. Since influential cases can bias statistical analysis, the decision was made to exclude Harbin (88 cases). The formal procedure used to identify Harbin as having exceptionally high self-identification as a victim for its actual level of pollution was the Box-Tidwell test, detailed in Scott W. Menard, Applied Logistic Regression Analysis (Thousand Oaks, CA and London: Sage, 2002), pp. 69-71.
64. The interpretation of a one standard deviation increase is not straightforward in the case of ordinal and dummy variables, but it is useful as a standard unit because it reflects the fact that differences in variation exist amongst the independent variables. An alternative standard unit would be the change from minimum to maximum values, but this would not capture differences in variation. As in any simulation exercise, these results are intended to indicate the substantive significance of the statistical relationships found. They are not equivalent to the probabilistic statements we would derive from the sample without doing any modelling. In fact, the survey shows that one is marginally more likely to be a pollution victim if one lives in an urban rather than a rural area, by a margin of 7% to 5% (P, 0.001).
65. Admittedly, we are on less certain ground here: instead of analysing, as above, a sample with thousands of cases, we are now looking at a subsample of 664.
66. The question was: '(If suffered harm) In that case, on the occasion when you suffered most from pollution, did you take any action?'.
67. Of those who contacted the polluter, 72% were dissatisfied as against 63% who contacted the government and 73% of those who contacted both and 47% of those who did neither.
68. The question was: 'Would you like to join an NGO engaged in environmental protection activities? Yes, and I have already done so; Yes, I would like to in future if there is an opportunity; No; Don't know'.
69. Neil Munro, 'The socio-political bases of willingness to join environmental NGOs in China: a study in social cohesion', International Journal of Social Quality 3(1), (2013), in press.
70. Stern, 'From dispute to decision'.
71. van Rooij, 'The people vs. pollution', pp. 58, 65, 67, 74.
72. Susan Martens, 'Public participation with Chinese characteristics: citizen consumers in China's environmental management', Environmental Politics 15(2), (2006), p. 64f.
73. By the end of 2005 there were 2,768 registered environmental NGOs in China including only 202 which were self-organized by members of the public according to Yuhong Zhao, 'Public participation in China's EIA regime: rhetoric or reality?', Journal of Environmental Law 22(1), (2010), p. 117.
74. Lei Xie, Environmental Activism in China (London: Routledge, 2009).
75. For discussions of government regulation of ENGOs see Jonathan Schwartz, 'Environmental NGOs in China: roles and limits', Pacific Affairs 77(1), (2004), pp. 28-49
76. Peter Ho, 'Sprouts of environmentalism in China? Government-organized NGOs and green organizations in disguise', in C. Mauch, N. Stoltzfus and D. R. Weiner, eds, Shades of Green: Environmental Activism around the Globe (Lanham, MD and Oxford: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, 2006), pp. 135-160
77. Shui-Yan Tang and Xueyong Zhan, 'Civic environmental NGOs, civil society, and democratisation in China', Journal of Development Studies 44(3), (2008), pp. 425-448.
78. The leading environmental NGO in this area, the Centre for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims, restricts itself to providing legal advice and is only able to get directly involved in about 1% of the complaints brought to it. Another NGO, called Shouwang Jiayuan, trains activists in water pollution disputes but faces pressure from the authorities, which has led to the arrest of one of the core activists according to van Rooij, 'The people vs. pollution', pp. 70, 73.
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91. Martens, 'Public participation with Chinese characteristics'
92. Zhao, 'Public participation in China's EIA regime'.
93. An MEP source put the number of such disputes at 51,000 in 2004 and 128,000 in 2005. See Tianjie Ma, 'Environmental mass incidents in rural China', China Environment Series 10, (2009), p. 35.
94. Jing, 'Environmental protests in rural China'.
95. Holdaway, 'Environment and health research in China', p. 263.
96. Holdaway, 'Environment and health research in China', p. 263.
97. 'IPE', available at: http://www.ipe.org.cn/pollution/index.aspx (accessed 27 June 2013).
98. Holdaway, 'Environment and health research in China', p. 271.