Information-poor environments: Asian tigers - Environmental Reform in the Information Age - page 250

which more efficient and modern bureaucratic government can be fur-
thered (Lagerkvist, 2005 ).
Although most of the efforts of the Chinese state regarding the Inter-
net have been on improving the bureaucracy, this is not really reflected
in international studies on China and the Internet. The majority of the
academic studies on the Internet in China focus on the government's
attempt to control and restrict the Internet (see later in this chapter),
and only few studies have concentrated on the large-scale investments,
commitment and dedication of the Chinese state to develop the Inter-
net and e-government: building digital infrastructure, mandating offi-
cial use of the Internet and encouraging participation of citizens with
digital technology (Kluver and Chen, 2003 ). 26
Within the field of environmental governance, the use of digital tech-
nologies has greatly improved data collection and data availability. The
Web site of SEPA, as well as many Web sites of provincial and local
environmental protection bureaus, contains large amounts of environ-
mental data on environmental investments, environmental quality, cit-
izen complaints and sometimes even emissions. Also most of the rele-
vant laws and regulations on the environment can be traced back on the
Internet. Compared to the e-governance structures in OECD countries,
however, there are hardly any possibilities for citizens to participate,
to gain insight in the procedures of policy making and lawmaking and
to forward with ideas and comments. The e-government initiatives on
the environment are also one-way top-down initiatives, without any
input from citizen discussion groups or NGOs. This means that these
EPA Web sites can play only a minor role in issues of accountability,
transparency, legitimacy and responsiveness. The National Informa-
tization Steering Group (CCW Research, 2002 ) also noticed that the
problem with Chinese government Web sites is that they are superb
in providing texts or regulations and laws, but generally fall short of
possibilities for citizens to interact with the government or provide a
means for citizen consultation. It is here that significant differences
with e-governance developments of OECD countries exist (Qui and
Hachigian, 2004 ). Hence, with respect to China, e-government seems
to blossom, whereas e-governance is largely absent.

26

See Walton ( 2001 ), who explains the so-called Golden Shield Project in China.
Usually Western multinationals (such as Silver Bullet, United Kingdom, and
Verint Systems, United States) are active in selling equipment to carry out
surveillance and control over Internet and mobile phoning in Vietnam and
China.