AS 201 Shapiro Reading

Preamble: How was China situated in the 1850s and 1860s? A vast country in the late stages of dynanstic decline with a kind of static Imperial Bureacratic system in place, under the management of a non-indigenous people, the Manchus. So, as a "national consciousness" grew, naturally it turned anti-Manchu and anti-dynastic. hence, the Revolution of 1911. But it did not settle things adequately. That would require a more deeply rooted, bottom-up revolutionary struggle, coinciding with Japan's invasion of China.

 

The People's Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949.

 

There is a story, no doubt apocryphal, that when Mao went to see off some of his Marxist comrades who were setting sail from Shangai for Europe, they passed a public park in the foreign enclave where he pointed to a sign proclaiming "No Chinese or Dogs Allowed." He indicated that this kind of humiliation could not stand for very much longer.

 

September 21, 1949 Mao had his say:

"The Chinese People have Stood Up!"

Ours will no longer be a nation subject to insult and humiliation. We have stood up. Our revolution has won the sympathy and acclaim of the people of all countries. We have friends all over the world.

It marks a dramatic end to foreign intrusion and noxious Imperialism in China. But it took China nearly a century to accomplish this long journey? How about Japan?

A much shorter time frame and much more favorable historical cicrumstances. As Reischauer pointed out in the video, at the end of Tokugawa period really everything else except the political structure had changed and was dynamic, poised to grow. Plus Japan never had the same Confucianism + Education System + Family system + Ideology-Political Structure nexus that China did. It had more flexibility.

 

Judith Shapiro,

"Environmental Challenges: Drivers and Trends"

This chapter is conveniently subdivided into 6 sections:

 

1. Population Increase

-- as we discussed for China in late Qing era (mid-1880s), this was a critical factor. 50-60 million had been the population for at least a millenium.

 

--With the remarkable Song Commercial Revolution in the 1100-1200s, the population doubled to reach 120 million.

 

--Alas, by 1840s, poplation had more than doubled again to perhaps over 400,000. See bottom of this page.

 

-- And further, between 1949-Present, the population doubled again from 600 million to 1.3 billion!!

 

By 2050 China's population will reach 9 billion!!

 

 

2. Rise of the Middle Class

 

--What does it mean to have a growing Middle Class? What doe people in these circumstances usually want?

 

 

--What is the "Environmental Kuznets Curve" model? What do you think of this argument?

 

 

3. Globalization of Manufacturing

 

What has this done for China's resource use?

 

China leads the world in Investments in renewable energy.

 

 

4. Land Use Changes: Urbanization, Idustrialization, Loss of Farmland

 

 

--By 2030 what percent of China's population will live in cities? What are some impacts of this?

 

5. Climate Change:

--What does it mean?

 

--Extreme Weather Patterns

--rainfall, sea level changes, storms, droughts, floods, desertification, erosion, glacier melt, aquifers fall

--Is it an outcome of environmental change or a cause of it?

-- China's per capita water resources = among lowest in the world only 25% or world averages --Megaproject: Yangzi--->Yellow River channel

 

--"Climate refugees?"

 

--Carbonizing Dragon? Role of coal

--2011 Conference of the China concil of (200 world experts) made a recommendation? What was it? What did the council conclude?

 

6. Recent Events and Environmental Conflicts

Nov. 2005 Jilin city Benzene spill into Songhua River.  Govt failed to disclose the accident to its citizens downriver in Harbin in a timely manner.

April 2007 Wu Lihong crusades against industrial pollution in Jiangsu Province’s Lake Tai which provides water to Wuxi. But he was arrested as a troublemaker for giving interviews to foreign journalists.  So being an eco-warrior or environmental activist is risky in China.

May 2007, cell phone and text message organized citizen resistance to proposed joint Taiwan PRC paraxylene chemical plant near Xiamen.  20,000 citizens turned out to protest! 1 million text messages sent! 

May 2008, devastating Sichuan earthquake killing 70,000 people in Wenchuan Co.  schools collapsed due to shoddy construction.

2008 Olympics cleaned up air in Beijing when factories moved to rural areas…..same year, tho, global attention turned to e-waste in Guandong.  CMS 60 Minutes does report.

2008-2009 saw protests and crackdowns in ethnic minority regions. 2009 Urumqi; also Tibetan and Muslim resentments of Han Chinese.

July 2010 two crude oil pipelines from tanker storage facility in Dalian exploded causing worst ever oil spill.  

April-June 2011 5,000 metric tone of chromium contaminated carcinogenic chemical  dumped into Yunnan Province’s Qiujing Pref threatening Pearl River which is source of drinking water for 10s of millions of people in Guangzhou. 

Ma Jun’s NGO Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs a player. He was the 2014 Dempsey Environmental Lecturer at WU.

“East is Grey” talks about Jan. 2013 Beijing “Airpocalypse” fetid smog.  A turning point for China?  Or too little, too late?

Public concerns exploded. Wide range of habitat degradation.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions up to 30% of world total from 10% in 1990.

Hard to reverse but what does China say about who is responsible for this?

How does the "grow first, clean up later" logic sound to you?

 

What advantages might China have as a late developer?

 

 

 

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