Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
is found. Nevertheless, and in contrast to egregious charges against
China, its engineers and technocrats are equipped with the technology
and skills to meet Northern standards, or even improve on them, if those
standards are demanded.
Adding to these diverging assessments, which call attention to extreme
injustices on the one hand and adherence to international standards on
the other, this chapter explores how China's needs and technological
competence materialize unequally in the global South. For Chinese oil
operators, international social and environmental standards (though
weak and with few enforcement mechanisms) and community and
labor dialogs (though not consensus-seeking and perhaps street-side) are
realized in Latin America in order to demonstrate international goodwill.
On the other hand, lesser standards and greater abuses are realized in
parts of Africa and Asia to secure much-needed hydrocarbons, regardless
of global stigmatization.
This chapter suggests that these two paths are not determined by
China's state leaders or technocrats, as some accounts would lead us to
believe. Latin America's active civil society, with a history of contesting
injustices, and its democratically elected leadership, along with the
copresence of transnational advocates, labor unions, and Northern mul-
tinational corporations (MNCs), govern China's operations. Indeed,
environmental, labor, and community groups in Latin America are better
able to monitor and curb the more appalling aspects of the industry than
their fragmented and vulnerable counterparts in parts of Africa and Asia,
where civil society has been weakened by authoritarian regimes. On this
point, Northern advocates have been critical initially in raising interna-
tional social and environmental standards among public and private
fi nanciers and the oil industry, while supporting affected communities in
the global South in challenging Northern corporations.
Finally, this chapter argues that an advocacy vacuum currently exists
in China. That is, there are Chinese oil operators without the copresence
of independent Chinese activists, scholars, journalists, and nongovern-
mental organizations (NGOs) to inform, monitor, and question the
former's practices. An alternative assessment of North-South advocacy
campaigns points to the potential role of Pan-Pacifi c networks between
China and South America, led by the more experienced South American
organizations. However, if Pan-Pacifi c networks materialize, it is unclear
whether they will adopt conservation-only policies infl uenced by North-
ern organizations, enact the more exacting and encompassing environ-
mental justice paradigm to eliminate the threat of petrochemical toxins,
