Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
domestic workplace, China appears unable to merge worker-centric
policies and protections with profi t-oriented production, a divide that
portends poorly for semiskilled workers overseas. Moreover, it remains
doubtful whether the more benevolent aspects of socialism, which remain
on the decline domestically, will be exported, including employment for
life and worker representation for non-Chinese laborers in China's over-
seas operations.
Environmental Damage and Repair
With regard to the environment, China's domestic dereliction has created
persistent pollution over Beijing, swaths of desertifi cation and dust
storms, polluted and toxic rivers, and greenhouse gas emissions (Economy
2004; Fishman 2005; Shirk 2007; Richerzhagen and Scholz 2008). A
number of large-scale environmental justice (EJ) struggles have surfaced
including a mobilization effort of more than 20,000 people to contest
chemical plants polluting local water sources, an additional 15,000 who
demonstrated against a pharmaceutical factory's water pollution, and a
third protest against a battery factory (Shirk 2007). If accurate, these
numbers far exceed community-based EJ campaigns in most other places.
Communities near the Hongwei Petrochemical Park have also identifi ed
a higher cancer risk as well as a cerebral palsy cluster, which they have
linked to the plants' operations (“Pollution in China” 2007; Ribet 2007).
Regionally, China has ignored or discounted how its domestic projects,
such as dam construction on the Upper Mekong River, impact nations
downstream, and how its industrial practices and desertifi cation have led
to transnational smog (Guttal 2008; Economy 2004; Fishman 2005).
Globally, China has failed to commit to international initiatives or poli-
cies to lower its greenhouse gas emissions (Richerzhagen and Scholz
2008; Gu, Humphrey, and Messner 2008), though neither has the United
States.
In contrast to this growing list of environmental injustices, interna-
tional pressure for a cleaner environment produced a more environmen-
tally aware population and state leadership during China's bid to host
the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. In particular, China's bid succeeded
in part because of Beijing's agreement to reduce the area's air and water
pollution and to properly dispose of solid wastes produced during the
games (“UNEP and Beijing Sign Pact” 2005). China also invited propos-
als for green urban planning, including garden rooftops, for the selected
city Liuzhou (Tyrnauer 2008), while Beijing banned the production and
use of thin plastic bags (“Poking Holes in China's Plan to Ban Plastic
