Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In contrast, Pan-Pacifi c networks, running parallel to oil and invest-
ment fl ows, have the potential to represent a more egalitarian exchange
of information, resources, and access. Latin American organizations
could raise China's capacity and awareness on global environmental
issues. Reciprocally, China could contribute cultural and political insights
and access to China's SOEs, as well as an emergent body of labor and
community activists, who may be receptive to learning from the more
established and tested Latin American groups. For Chinese organiza-
tions, learning democratic governance, environmental justice, and labor
rights from Latin American organizations rather than biased standards
from the political and economic elites of the waning Western world may
be critical to advancing global and southern justice.
Despite these promises, an ominous vacuum currently exists. There
are Chinese oil operators without the consistent copresence of indepen-
dent Chinese activists, NGOs, scholars, and journalists. Their absence
may be due to an orchestrated effort to restrain differences of opinion
domestically or to an overwhelming number of domestic struggles that
obstruct their ability to mobilize or join international campaigns. They
may also exclude themselves from international collaboration if they
interpret international opposition as xenophobic or as a concerted effort
to restrain China's status as a rising global power. Indeed, Chinese pro-
fessionals and activists are Chinese citizens, who may interpret global
justice as justice for China alone, at the expense of communities and
ecosystems where China seeks resources.
Pathways of Opportunity and Prudence
In sum, the strains between China's oil need and the technocrats' business
acumen, directed by grassroots controls, state leadership, and Northern
standards, have produced two trajectories for China's overseas opera-
tions. On the one hand, need steers oil production in parts of Africa and
Asia, where petroleum sits below some of the world's worst civil strife
and human rights abuses and where China charts its own path with little
global oversight. On the other hand, China's corporate elites exercise
their international skills and competitive ability to meet the existing,
though inadequate, standards in Latin America. However, , the political
drive to replace private Northern fi rms with state-owned companies
in parts of South America may diminish the undercurrent of corporate-
to-corporate competitiveness that may improve standards rather than
diminish them.
