On sealing a lakebed: mass media and environmentaldemocratisation in China

Ji Ma, Michael Webber *, Brian L. Finlayson

Department of Resource Management and Geography, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia

e n v i r o n m e n t a l s c i e n c e & p o l i c y 1 2 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 7 1 – 8 3

a r t i c l e i n f o

Published on line 29 October 2008

Keywords:

China

Media

Governance

Environmental management

Internet

a b s t r a c t

This paper examines a transition of environmental governance in China that involves

increased transparency and public participation. It pays close attention to the role of the

mass media in this transformation. After briefly reviewing the history of environmental

governance in China, the paper examines the particular transformations in the governance

regime that are associated with the controversy over the sealing of the eastern lake in the

Old Summer Palace, Beijing. The paper argues that the central government has increasingly

enlisted the support of the public and the media in governing environmental matters and

provides evidence that the traditional mass media and the Internet have become increas-

ingly active in environmental debates in China.

# 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

avai lab le at www.sc iencedi rec t .com

journal homepage: www.e lsev ier .com/ locate /envsc i

1. Introduction

The evolution of the Chinese Central Government’s policies and

actions in the past 15 years has resulted in a transition towards

an environmental governance regime that is more open to

public consultation and more transparent than the traditional

way of managing the environment before the 1990s. We refer to

such a transition in environmental governance as a process

of environmental democratisation. Many researchers have

observed the development of civil society during China’s recent

reforms (e.g. Yang, 2003a). Despite the emergence of this field

and the significance of environmental democratisation in

China, little research has been conducted to examine the

process of democratising the Chinese environmental govern-

ance regime.

In many countries, the Internet, by improving public

access to environmental information and stimulating online

environmental communication, has become an instrument

for increased public participation in environmental decision-

making (Scharl, 2004). The Internet is gradually becoming

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 8344 3171.E-mail address: mjwebber@unimelb.edu.au (M. Webber).

1462-9011/$ – see front matter # 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserveddoi:10.1016/j.envsci.2008.09.001

a part of millions of Chinese people’s lives too, providing them

a platform for online environmental communication. Several

forms of online communication, such as Bulletin Board

System (BBS) Forum and BLOG, have been adopted for the

discussion of environmental concerns. This paper exam-

ines the role of the mass media in China’s environmental

democratisation, with a particular focus on the role of the

Internet.

The paper seeks answers to two central questions. In what

respects have the Chinese Central Government’s policies and

actions towards environmental governance evolved in the

past 15 years? What has been the role of the mass media in

these transformations? The vehicle for this analysis is the so-

called lakebed-sealing project in the Old Summer Palace,

Beijing (see Fig. 1 for a map of the Palace and its location).

Recent changes to the hydrology of the surface and ground-

water systems that have historically kept the lakes at the Old

Summer Palace supplied with water caused the adminis-

trators of the site to set out to artificially seal the beds of the

lakes in an attempt to maintain full lake levels. The work was

.

Fig. 1 – Map of Old Summer Palace and its location in Beijing.

e n v i r o n m e n t a l s c i e n c e & p o l i c y 1 2 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 7 1 – 8 372

begun without an environmental effects study as required by

China’s Environmental Impact Assessment Law. The merits of

the lakebed sealing are arguable; however, the issue here is the

political events surrounding the illegal actions.

The lakebed-sealing case provides, we argue, a significant

vehicle through which to examine the transformation of

environmental governance in China and the role of mass

media, particularly the Internet, in that transformation. Since

this significance can only be evaluated in the context of the

evolving environmental governance regime, the next section

describes the changing forms of environmental governance in

China. This is followed, in Section 3, by a brief review of the

potential roles of the mass media in environmental demo-

cratisation—especially in China, which is not a liberal

democracy. In Section 4, the paper provides a brief introduc-

tion to the controversy over the lakebed-sealing case. The

paper then describes the evolution of the mass media in

Chinese society, both traditional and online forms, illustrating

how these media have been used by the central government as

tools to assist in governance. Section 6 provides evidence from

web sites, interviews with members of blogging circles,

bulletin board postings and other online surveys to indicate

the degree to which an online, unorganised environmental

movement is emerging in China, and the hopes and expecta-

tions of its members for environmental democratisation. The

conclusion brings this material together to argue that the

transformation of the governance regime has its origins in

both government policy and the grassroots.

2. Context: evolving environmentalgovernance in China

The historic Third Plenum of the Eleventh Party Congress held

by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on December 18, 1978

symbolised the start of a series of reforms and developments

in China’s economic, political, legal and social spheres

(Goodman, 1994). Rapid economic transition has not brought

about a radical turn towards a western-style democracy based

on open and public participation in the political process.

Instead, the Chinese leadership has confined its political

reform to political decentralisation, development of technoc-

racy, improvement of governance, smoothing out the leader-

ship transitions, and efforts to separate the government from

the Party (Wang and Wong, 1999). China’s environmental

governance has also undergone a transformation since the

late 1970s.

The transformation of the environmental governance

regime can be divided into Pre-reform (before 1978) and

Post-reform Eras (Goodman, 1994; Weatherley, 2006), with the

latter subdivided into the Transitional and Modernisation

Phases. During the Pre-reform Era, the Central Government

simply did not pay much attention to environmental issues.

Since 1978, the leadership has initiated a range of reforms in

all aspects of contemporary Chinese society; meanwhile, the

National People’s Congress (NPC), as the highest law-making

organ in China, attempted to establish a legal framework for

environmental protection (Sinkule and Ortolano, 1995). After

e n v i r o n m e n t a l s c i e n c e & p o l i c y 1 2 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 7 1 – 8 3 73

this Transitional Phase, the focus shifted in 1992 to institu-

tionalising an effective and efficient regulatory system for

environmental governance through political modernisation.

Environmental Non-Government Organisations were regis-

tered; SEPA began monthly environmental quality reports; the

EIA Law came into effect (1 September 2003); in 2005, SEPA

started China’s first environmental protection storm, the

centre of which was The Old Summer Palace eastern lakebed-

sealing case (SEPA, 2005a); and during this storm, 82 large

projects (involving 112.3 billion RMB investment) were

suspended for inappropriate EIA processes (Gu, 2007).

Although some environmental regulations were promul-

gated in the 1950s and 1960s (Ross and Silk, 1987), a legal

foundation for environmental protection was only established

during the Transitional Phase, 1978–1992 (Qu, 1991; Lo et al.,

2000). However, EIAs were conducted for only about 60% of

construction projects (CEYEC, 1993). During the Modernisation

Phase, the implementation of EIA has improved dramatically,

particularly since the issuing of China’s EIA Law in 2002: by

1999, the annual EIA rate reached 95% and is now approaching

100% (CEYEC, 1992–2006); 1 year after the lakebed-sealing case,

the Central Government issued the Environmental Protection

Administrative Permission Hearing Regulation (Trial) to promote

public participation in environmental governance, including

EIA processes.

In the past three decades, China’s environmental regula-

tory institutions have evolved in response to the transition of

environmental protection from a fringe issue to a pivotal

focus in the contemporary political arena. The status of the

state’s environmental protection apparatus has been raised

from Environmental Protection Leading Group of the State

Council with no administrative authority in the 1970s to

Environmental Protection Administration under the Ministry

of Urban and Rural Construction and Environmental Protec-

tion in the 1980s, and then, since 1998, SEPA has been a

ministry directly under the State Council (Xinhua Net, 2003).

Likewise, the number of environmental protection bureaus

(EPBs) and environmental protection offices (EPOs) grew

rapidly (Qu, 1991; NEPA, 1992). These institutions of China’s

environmental protection bureaucracy follow a structural

pattern common to China’s agencies of government: they

receive policy mandates and instructions from SEPA through

provincial level EPBs, while each EPB or EPO is a department of

a local government (Sinkule and Ortolano, 1995; see also

Lieberthal, 1992; Dreyer, 2006). The dual track of environ-

mental governance authority has resulted in problems in the

implementation of environmental laws and regulations

(Sinkule and Ortolano, 1995; Schroeder, 1992), particularly

since EPBs are constantly juggling the demands of two

superiors—the local governments and the parent EPBs

(Sinkule and Ortolano, 1995). This problematic situation

has improved since the lakebed-sealing case. Five regional

supervision centres have been set up by SEPA to improve

administration of environmental issues at provincial and

municipal levels by supervising local EPBs, co-ordinating

trans-boundary issues, investigating serious accidents and

dealing with emergencies (People’s Daily Online, 2006; Li,

2006). This modification of China’s environmental govern-

ance system has increased SEPA’s capacity to enforce

environmental laws and regulations.

3. Mass media and environmentaldemocratisation

A key characteristic of developed societies is the dramatic

emergence of environmental consciousness and movements

from the early 1970s onwards, especially Europe and North

America (Hannigan, 1995, 2006). Yet the new consciousness

and even some government actions have not had satisfactory

environmental outcomes (Andersen and Massa, 2000). The

concept of ‘ecological modernisation’ (Huber, 2004; Janicke,

1990, 2006) is one response to this failure, which argues that

industrial society can be transformed to be ecologically

friendly, under the right circumstances (Gibbs, 2000, 2002).

Critical ‘right circumstances’ are appropriate technical

innovation (Huber, 2004) and democratic institutional struc-

tures (Janicke, 1990, 2006).

Most of the literature that applies ecological modernisation

theory concentrates on environment–society relationships in

post-industrial societies in developed countries. Yet rapid

industrialisation has seen mass environmental movements

emerge in many developing countries, especially in East Asia

(Mol and van Buuren, 2003; Mol, 2006). Mol and Carter (2006)

studied China’s transitional environmental governance using

ecological modernisation theory. They point out that ecolo-

gical modernisation is taking place in tandem with political

modernisation, which they characterise as the replacement of

a rigid, hierarchical, command-and-control system of envir-

onmental governance by more decentralised and flexible

systems. Others (e.g. Butler and Macey, 1996) have demon-

strated the drawbacks of environmental regulation through

intensive federal command-and-control regulation of envir-

onmental risks, which mitigate against the adaptation of

environmental policies to local socio-economic and ecological

circumstances. On the other hand, local governments may

relegate environmental protection behind economic develop-

ment (Mol and Carter, 2006).

However, in developed countries, environmental move-

ments emerged in already relatively open societies. In

societies like China, a precondition for an environmental

movement is the availability of information about environ-

mental conditions, regulations and behaviours, and a space in

which to discuss these (the democratic precondition of

Janicke, 1990, 2006). In China, though, the mass media have

been manipulated by the Chinese Central Government as

instruments of social control, a state machine to promote its

policies and achievements. The Chinese mass media before

the economic reforms in 1978 were tools of mass propaganda

and persuasion (Chang et al., 1993), tightly controlled by the

CCP as its mouthpiece (Zhao, 1998). (This role has become

apparent again in internal Chinese reporting on the distur-

bances in Tibet in early 2008.) Being state-owned, almost all

the media groups in China remain affiliated with the

government (Wen, 1998). But journalism, like other sectors

in China, has been reforming since the mid-1980s, with the

emergence of a discourse of democratisation (Zhao, 1998).

Despite the failure of the pro-democracy movement in June

1989, and various crackdowns on debate since, the reform of

the mass media has been encouraged, ironically, by media

commercialisation since the adoption of a socialist market

economy since 1992.

e n v i r o n m e n t a l s c i e n c e & p o l i c y 1 2 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 7 1 – 8 374

In a government-dominated country like China, the free-

dom of the mass media is tied closely to the degree of

democracy. Although we provide evidence of signs of

increasing public participation and transparency in environ-

mental decision-making, these are not evidence of democ-

racy: Chinese society remains in the control of the state, and

there are no national-level contests for political power.

Increasing participation and transparency are thus signs of

democratisation, not signs of democracy, much less signs of

an irreversible move towards democracy (Goodman, 2008).

Debate about China’s political development and modernisa-

tion since the 1980s is between two competing schools of

thought—democratic and neo-authoritarian (Petracca and

Xiong, 1990; Arthur, 1992; Sautman, 1992). While the demo-

crats argue that democracy is an essential prerequisite for

modernising China, the neo-authoritarians insist that mod-

ernisation in China can only be achieved with authoritarian

rule (Petracca and Xiong, 1990; Arthur, 1992; Sautman, 1992). In

developed countries, environmental consciousness has been a

grassroots movement, which implies that environmental

democratisation is a prerequisite for ecological modernisa-

tion, as Janicke (1990, 2006) argued. Furthermore, the evolution

of the economic system has implications for governance (Wu,

1989), and like Wu, we shall argue that the corporatisation and

commercialisation of state enterprises, including media

enterprises, have implications for the openness and coverage

of environmental issues.

Environmental protection is not as sensitive as some

political issues and its success depends to a large extent on

popular support and participation; thus, the Chinese mass

media have been given a gradually increasing degree of

freedom in terms of reporting environmental issues, includ-

ing environmental conflicts and abuses, for the last 15 years.

Wang (2005c) studied print media coverage of an environ-

mental dispute between two cities in Guangdong Province in

2000 and suggested that China’s environmental governance

was certainly becoming more transparent, though with

continuing control over information by the governments at

all levels. In perhaps the first domestic book about environ-

mental communication, Green Media, Wang (2005a) examines

environmental communication and explores the roles of all

forms of mass media in China’s environmental protection

industry, without, however, addressing the importance of

mass media in China’s ongoing environmental democratic

movement or linking different factors in the growth of

environmental media to their shared root—environmental

democratisation.

The Internet, as a new form of mass media, has also played

an important role in sharing information and communication.

As networks of people (Gurak and Logie, 2003), the Internet has

a close relationship to democratic movements (Kidd, 2003).

Although the Chinese government still monitors the use of

and access to the Internet, and filters out many web sites,

cyberspace is a much freer social space in the Chinese public

sphere than any other medium. There were 162 million

Internet users nationwide by the first half of 2007 (CNNIC,

2007). China’s fast-growing population in cyberspace has

resulted in burgeoning attention from both Chinese aca-

demics and international commentators, particularly the

connections between the virtual social sphere of cyberspace

and political control and democracy (Abbott, 2001; Harwit and

Clark, 2001; Yang, 2003a). Yang (2003b,c, 2004) extends this

research to the interplays between the Internet, China’s

environmentalism and the development of democracy; he

argues that the use of the Internet by the general public has

fostered debates about, and the articulation of, various

domestic social problems, which leads to environmental

democratisation in cyberspace.

We shall build on Yang’s work. In particular, we seek to

contribute to this literature by examining the role of the mass

media in China’s evolving environmental governance, espe-

cially focussing on the new medium—the Internet. We seek to

understand how cyberspace has become a freer (than the

traditional media) social space for the environmental move-

ment, identifying both grassroots and government motives in

this trend. We seek, too, to understand how users perceive this

new medium and what they hope to achieve through it. In

doing this, we seek to understand the degree to which an

environmental democracy has been emerging in China—a

country far removed from the usual societies analysed

through the lens of the theory of ecological modernisation.

Of course, to argue that cyberspace has become an

increasingly free space for the environmental movement is

neither to claim that it is free for the environmental move-

ment nor to claim that it is increasingly free for other arenas of

social debate. Reportage of human rights in China during the

lead up to the Olympic Games in August 2008 has made clear

the lack of media freedom in China, including the use of the

Internet. The government controls access to websites, chat

forums and blogging services, using filters that block keywords

that are considered subversive (Reporters sans frontieres,

2008; see also Olympic Watch, 2008). All we argue is that there

has been increasing public involvement in environmental

governance, fostered by the growing use of the Internet. The

fact of government censorship of other debates, and punish-

ment of those who participate in them, means furthermore

that even the democratisation of environmental governance

is on government suffrance and that this suffrance may be

removed in the future.

4. The lakebed-sealing case

In 2005, the State Environmental Protection Administration

(SEPA) started China’s first environmental protection ‘storm’,

the Chinese expression for a nationwide environmental

protection campaign, to implement the Environmental Impact

Assessment (EIA) Law (Law of the People’s Republic of China on

Evaluation of Environmental Effects). For several months in 2005,

the lakebed-sealing project became the focus of this first

environmental protection storm. The case attracted mass

attention from both offline and online communities. Com-

pared to other illegal projects, the investment involved in this

lake-sealing project is tiny. However, this case was iconic—a

milestone in the history of Chinese environmental govern-

ance, and focussed on a culturally important site.

The lakebed-sealing case was such a crucial event in

China’s environmental democratisation for several reasons.

Firstly, the case emerged in March 2005 with a letter posted on

the Internet by an environmental activist, Zhengchun Zhang,

e n v i r o n m e n t a l s c i e n c e & p o l i c y 1 2 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 7 1 – 8 3 75

and a phone call from him to the People’s Daily (Wang, 2006).

Zhengchun Zhang is a visiting professor at Lanzhou Uni-

versity. In other words, this controversy was raised by the

general public rather than officials. Secondly, the construction

site lies in the ruins of the Old Summer Palace—a cultural and

historical heritage site that carries the memory of the nation’s

humiliation during the nineteenth century. An important

palace of the Qing emperors, the Old Summer Palace was

looted and burned in 1860, during the Second Opium War, and

then again in 1900 (Wang, 1999). Thirdly, SEPA held a public

hearing in April 2005 to discuss the environmental impact of

the Old Summer Palace lakebed-sealing project—the first

national public hearing on an environmental issue. The public

hearing was transparent throughout the entire process,

including the environmental impact assessment. Ting Zheng

Hui, the Chinese translation of ‘hearing’, can also mean

‘inquiry’, but this process functioned only as a public forum

rather than an inquiry, as it did not result in a resolution of the

controversy. Fourthly, the lakebed-sealing case revealed a

common practice: many construction projects start without

proper environmental impact assessment. Last but not

least, the lakebed-sealing case has accelerated the process

of environmental democratisation in China.

The first newspaper report about the illegal lakebed-sealing

construction project in the Old Summer Palace was written in

the People’s Daily and its website by Yongxin Zhao, who was

awarded ‘‘Figure of Green China’’ in 2005 (Wang, 2005b). His

report initiated a series of reports on the case by news agencies

around the nation and online BBS discussion. Most news and

portal websites established special sections for the lakebed-

sealing case. SEPA took immediate action in organising a

public hearing and requesting the Old Summer Palace Ruins

Park Administrative Bureau to complete an environmental

impact assessment for the lakebed-sealing project. (The EIA

office affiliated with Beijing Normal University was criticised

by SEPA for refusing to undertake the EIA: Zhou, 2005.)

A national-level public hearing on the environmental

impact of the lakebed sealing was held by SEPA in response

to the media coverage and online discussion of this incident.

More than 120 people, ranging from an 11-year-old primary

school student to experts in their 80s, attended this hearing on

13 April 2005 (Qin, 2005). Thirty speakers expressed their

opinions on the lakebed-sealing case during this four-hour

hearing. The hearing displayed conflicting opinions on the

controversy over sealing the Eastern Lakes in the Old Summer

Palace (Xinhua Net, 2005), which are explored in the EIA report

published by Tsinghua University EIA Office (2005). Although it

did not resolve the conflict, this national-level public hearing

is important as an historic landmark in China’s environmental

democratisation, opening up a new era of environmental

governance and redefining the public’s role in environmental

decision-making. The media played a crucial role.

The holding of a national-level environmental public

hearing indicates that the Central Government is fostering

public debates about environmental issues. Increasing trans-

parency of governance, particularly in the field of environ-

mental protection, has made the public more informed.

Meanwhile, the role of the public in decision-making about

environmental management has been enhanced with the

introduction of several policies, such as the Environmental

Protection Administrative Permission Hearing Regulation (Trial),

that encourage public engagement in environmental govern-

ance. These are all signs of a democratising environmental

governance regime in China.

The public hearing set up a platform for the public and

experts to exchange views and inform a wide audience of the

latest developments in the lakebed-sealing controversy. The

Environmental Impact Assessment for the Old Summer Palace

Eastern Lakebed-Sealing Project was completed by Tsinghua

University EIA Office in June 2005. The approval of this EIA

report by SEPA officially drew the controversy to a conclusion.

In consideration of the fragile ecosystem, Tsinghua University

EIA Office (2005) advised that the lakebed sealing should be

discontinued and that the already installed watertight

membrane under the lakebed should be modified but not

removed. However, the damage to the original artificial

wetland ecosystem was acknowledged, while the EIA report

also pointed out that the illegal construction resulted in huge

difficulties in assessing its ecological costs (Tsinghua Uni-

versity EIA Office, 2005). According to the report, the local lake

ecosystem can possibly benefit from the lakebed-sealing

project, while the regional hydrological system was disturbed,

which may lead to further ecological degradation in Beijing

Municipality (Tsinghua University EIA Office, 2005). The

publication of the Environmental Impact Assessment for the Old

Summer Palace Eastern Lakebed-Sealing Project was another

‘‘first’’: the first time that SEPA had released an EIA report

on a major environmental controversy (Liu, 2005; SEPA, 2005a).

5. New media power in China’senvironmental democratisation

Since the ‘Open Door’ Policy, the state control of mass media

has gradually been loosened, particularly since the commer-

cialisation of the media industry and the introduction of the

Internet in the early 1990s (Cheung, 2006). Mass media can

command the attention of many people through sophisticated

techniques of engaging interest (de Burgh, 2003), playing an

important role in China’s environmental democratisation.

This section examines the role of emerging media power in the

recent environmental democratisation. Section 5.1 explores

the changing media landscape in China, while Section 5.2

examines the role of the mass media in China’s environmental

democratic movement through an analysis of online materials

about the lakebed-sealing case.

5.1. Changing media landscape in China

As a contingent consequence of the dramatic economic

reform during the previous decade, China’s media landscape

has been transformed since the early 1990s, particularly

through the structural reform of the state-owned media

industry and the development of the Internet.

The media industry in China began its transformation after

more than a decade of market reform of the economy. As a

part of the nationwide commercialisation of state-owned

organs, state media groups have been corporatised since

the late 1980s. Much of the Chinese mass media industry

has become structurally and functionally semi-independent

e n v i r o n m e n t a l s c i e n c e & p o l i c y 1 2 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 7 1 – 8 376

(Huang, 2000). These media groups became legally separate

entities as a result of the changes in ownership. Despite their

financial independence, most mass media groups continue to

be affiliated with the government in terms of content (Wen,

1998): commercialisation without true independence (Chan,

1993).

Despite the contradiction between economic liberalism

and political illiberalism, sufficient freedom exists to report

issues that are not politically sensitive, including environ-

mental protection. The commercialisation of mass media

requires the press to follow the rule of the market economy:

meet the needs of the audience. With mounting environ-

mental concern in China, many people have more and more

interest in environmental issues (Ma, 2007), for the state of the

environment is closely related to quality of life; therefore,

there has been a sharp increase in the number and quality of

news reports on environmental issues in China’s mass media

from the early 1990s (CCEP Online, 2007).

With the rapid development of mass media infrastructure

across the country, the government has also increased its use

of mass media to improve the environmental governance

regime. In 1993, the China Century Environmental Protection

Campaign was initiated by 14 ministries and departments of

the Central Government to increase transparency and obtain

environmental information from all aspects of society. This is

acknowledged as the most successful media campaign on

environmental issues in China’s media history (Wang, 2005a),

having run with a different theme annually for the past 15

years (CCEP Online, 2007). The maturation of the China

Century Environmental Protection Campaign reflects the

gradual development of democratic discourse in China’s mass

media industry. Between 1993 and 2006, more than 200 000

reports on environmental abuse and conflicts were publicised

in China’s mass media (CCEP Online, 2007). According to a 6-

year study by Friends of Nature (2000) on 75 newspapers,

environmental awareness in China’s newspapers had

improved significantly by the end of the 20th century.

Meanwhile, other media products on environment, such as

documentaries and films, have also become more common

(Wang, 2005a).

The mass media has been adopted in a new approach by

SEPA to empower China’s environmental governance: SEPA

encourages journalists to uncover illegal environmental

abuses (Wang, 2007). In other words, SEPA uses the media’s

ability to expose environmental infringements to construct

social pressure on environmental wrongdoers. Mr. Yue Pan, as

SEPA’s Vice Administrator and spokesman, used to hold key

positions in several central newspaper administrative offices

(SEPA, 2005b), which explains his understanding of media and

public scrutiny in China’s environmental governance. Since

the iconic lakebed-sealing case, Mr. Yue Pan has emphasised

the pivotal role of mass media in transforming environmental

governance on many occasions (China Youth Daily, 2007). The

mass media can place pressure on those enterprises that

violate environmental laws as well as those local EPBs that

assist illegal activities by covering them up. The involvement

of the mass media in reporting local environmental abuses

and wrongdoings can effectively empower SEPA.

The Internet has also played an important role in sharing

information and communication, offering a new and different

approach to environmental communication. The innovative

means of information sharing and exchanging in cyberspace

have resulted in burgeoning attention from SEPA; therefore,

the Internet has also been adopted as a tool to increase the

transparency of environmental governance by keeping the

public informed about environmental issues. According to

SEPA’s current policy on environmental governance transpar-

ency, environmental information is updated regularly on

SEPA’s website, because SEPA believes that public confidence

in its environmental governance can be improved as the

degree of transparency rises (People’s Daily Online, 2007).

According to existing environmental laws in China, the

disclosure of environmental information is a citizen’s right.

By taking advantage of this new vehicle, SEPA is implementing

the related guidelines on ‘open information’ by releasing

information and reports on the environment regularly on its

website. A new regulation on environmental governance

transparency, which took effect in May 2008, can potentially

enhance the current practice of information transparency in

environmental governance.

However, the Internet offers not only audience-oriented

broadcasting (also achieved by conventional mass media) but

also an interactive communicating platform in cyberspace. In

other words, the traditional mass media merely provide a

single directional information flow from the newspapers, TV

and radio stations to the audience, while the Internet allows a

dual- or multi-directional information exchange and com-

munication. Thus Fig. 2 identifies trends in the use of ‘letters’

and ‘visits’ to environmental government institutions. ‘Let-

ters’ refer to written complaints to governments, while ‘visits’

refer to face-to-face complaints to government officials in

SEPA and local EPBs. A substantial rise in the number of

‘letters’ and only a slight increase in the number of ‘visits’ can

be observed. With the rapid development of Internet infra-

structure in China, millions of Internet users can submit

written complaints in the form of emails. In other words, the

Internet allows cheap and easy complaints from the public on

environmental issues, which is a reason for the significant

increment in the number of ‘letters’, when the number of

‘visits’ merely increased slightly over the same period. The

rapid rise in complaints on environmental issues is vital to

China’s democratising environmental governance, which

reflects the emerging interactions between China’s environ-

mental protection bureaus and the public.

Thus the changing dynamics of China’s mass media. On

the one hand, the conventional mass media are playing an

increasingly vital role in safeguarding the environment by

reporting environmental crises, responding to a growing

public interest and their own commercial orientation. On

the other hand, the Internet establishes a network for people

to exchange information and a virtual platform for the general

public to be involved in SEPA’s environmental decision-

making, which complements mass media by allowing more

discussion and controversy as opposed to the party line of the

mass media. In both, the government’s attitude that the

environment is important but not politically contentious

provides a relatively unregulated space in which these

activities can occur. SEPA’s embrace of the mass media as a

tool of environmental governance serves to encourage these

trends.

Fig. 2 – Numbers of ‘letters’ and ‘visits’ to SEPA and EPBs (1991–2005); source: CEYEC (1992–2006). Note: ‘Letters’ are defined as

written complaints to SEPA and EPBs; ‘visits’ are defined as face-to-face complaints to governments.

e n v i r o n m e n t a l s c i e n c e & p o l i c y 1 2 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 7 1 – 8 3 77

5.2. Analyses of online materials

The year 2003 has been widely acknowledged as the ‘Year of

Network Opinion’ in China, the date since when public

opinion on the Internet from online bulletin boards, forums,

chat rooms, postings and web blogs on numerous Chinese

websites prompted the government to take action on various

occasions (Tai, 2006). The lakebed-sealing case gave the

Central Government its first taste of how millions of Chinese

Internet users could respond to such an environmental

incident. Here we use the results of a Google search, BBS

messages about the lakebed-sealing case and an online survey

to provide information about this response.

The lakebed-sealing case quickly became the centre of

focus online nationwide, and a Google search with the

keywords—The Old Summer Palace EIA—a year after the

outbreak of the incident (in March 2006) turned up over 269 000

articles about the lakebed-sealing case. A random selection of

100 articles from this Google search reveals that approxi-

mately 60% (i.e. 161 400 items) of the web pages comprised

articles from major news sources. Another 15% (i.e. 40 350

items) of the pages consisted of articles from personal blogs

and other similar comments. The remaining 25% (i.e. 67 250

items) we judge to be irrelevant, ranging from general articles

on the Old Summer Palace to advertisements. In other words,

the lakebed-sealing case attracted enormous attention from

Internet users. More than 200 000 articles on various websites

are related to the lakebed-sealing case. This is despite the fact

that some of articles had already been deleted by the host

websites before our search. This Google search provides a big

picture within which to understand the information contained

in BBS messages that we have analysed.

BBS is one of the most commonly used means of online

communication by Chinese Internet users. By using BBS,

people can simply make comments after reading articles. We

have analysed a collection of BBS messages. Tens of thousands

of BBS messages were written by Chinese Internet users, who

commented on the related news articles throughout the cyber

sphere. Most BBS messages were deleted by the websites

approximately 1 year after the lakebed-sealing case. Among

the major websites in China, SINA.com, which ranks as the

second most popular website and has had a BBS forum for

more than 10 years, has kept a relatively complete collection of

the BBS messages on this issue (CNNIC, 2006), located at:

http://comment4.news.sina.com.cn/comment/skin/

default.html?channel=gn&newsid=1-1-7129438&style=1&ni-

ce=0&rid=0&page=0&face=&hot=_112_3_10.

All 6519 BBS messages found at SINA.com have been read

and summarised according to their degree of support for

various propositions. Almost half of the messages expressed

outrage at the illegal lakebed-sealing project, while nearly

one-sixth of the comments support the idea of conserving

water through a watertight membrane. The remaining 35% are

considered neutral in terms of their position.

Among the BBS messages we selected all postings that were

supported by at least one hundred readers and translated the

five most supported postings among them, as shown in

Table 1. The most supported message overall displayed

people’s concern about the potential negative ecological

impacts on the regional environment of sealing the lakebed.

The second, third and fourth most supported BBS messages

reflected public anger at proceeding with the lakebed-sealing

project without having an appropriate EIA. One message that

supported the lakebed-sealing project also found its place in

the list of the five most supported BBS postings. Evidently,

there are conflicting views of the merits of the lakebed sealing;

however, there was widespread anger at the lack of an EIA.

Since the neutral propositions comprise a blend of view-

points, the five most representative neutral messages were

identified and translated, as shown in Table 2. The first

message mirrored the demand for democracy in environ-

mental protection. The second and fourth messages stressed

the significance of the rule of the law, particularly the

enforcement of the EIA Law, in China’s environmental

Table 1 – The five most supported BBS messages at SINA.com.

1 It (the water-tight membrane) is harmful to the environment, so it should certainly be removed immediately!

2 The sealing construction was started with no EIA; and the water-tight membrane is to be removed now. Who is responsible

for all these? I am sorry for the tax I paid.

3 The management of the Old Summer Palace Ruins Park must take the legal responsibility!

4 The Administrative Office of the Old Summer Palace Ruins Park violated the law, which almost produced an irreparable

mistake. Why the responsible leaders and members of staff were not questioned? The people who take most

responsibility should resign automatically!

5 I support the lakebed-sealing construction in the Old Summer Palace. I have been involved in the landscape construction

industry for a long time. I think that this project is the best solution both economically and technically.

Source: SINA.com (2005).

e n v i r o n m e n t a l s c i e n c e & p o l i c y 1 2 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 7 1 – 8 378

governance; the fourth one also made it clear that different

institutions should take different responsibilities in resolving

environmental controversy. The third message expressed

people’s concern about possible economic problems behind

the lakebed-sealing case. The fifth message expressed the

public’s pleasure in SEPA’s attitude in dealing with the

lakebed-sealing controversy and hopes for China’s future

environmental democratisation. The breadth and depth of

the neutral BBS messages can be regarded as evidence of the

recent increase of environmental knowledge and growing

environmental awareness among the Chinese Internet users.

BBS messengers clearly identified the importance of the rule

of law, and of publicity.

Another online survey was conducted by a TV news

magazine, Eastern Horizon. This is one of the most highly

viewed television news magazine programs from China

Central Television (CCTV): it explores illegal or immoral

practices by institutions and reports incidents as illustrative

of social phenomena deserving public attention (Hua, 2000).

With the outbreak of the lakebed-sealing case in April 2005,

Eastern Horizon posted two web-based, closed, multiple-

choice survey questions on the website specially about the

lakebed-sealing case.

The first question—what result do you think can be achieved

by the public hearing on the controversy over sealing the

Eastern Lakes in the Old Summer Palace?—asks people’s

opinion about the public hearing. The survey question shows

a high expectation for the first national-level environmental

hearing from the public (Eastern Horizon, 2005). More than 87%

wanted the watertight membrane to be removed, while 10%

Table 2 – The five most representative neutral BBS messages

1 Democratic decision-making represents the new idea of moder

protection’, rather than an issue that affects only the minority.

society. The fair platform established among the government, t

in obtaining and communicating all kinds of ideas. The govern

2 The rule of law is the best weapon in resolving all kinds of con

as a ‘soft law’, which led to many construction projects started

ecosystem, but also ruin the dignity of the law. The principle o

Old Summer Palace case, which can be used as the example fo

3 If the officials can benefit, then that is the best plan. In terms o

4 EIA is EIA. The court and procuratorate should investigate econ

an administrative bureau; hence, it can only be responsible for

5 It is a victory in environmental protection! This is a vivid exam

the most effective warning: the consequence will not be good f

protection!

Source: SINA.com (2005).

wanted to modify the current construction plan. Less than 3%

thought the lakebed-sealing construction should continue

while processing an EIA. Although the public hearing failed

to achieve any of the three options in this question, the later EIA

report requested a number of modifications from its original

plan.

The second question—what is your view of the function of

public hearings generally?—investigates public opinion on public

hearings in China (Eastern Horizon, 2005). Nearly 16% of

respondents thought that public hearings were very useful,

making the processes of decision-making more democratic,

while another quarter thought that hearings were useful,

displaying the attitude of encouraging public participation.

However, nearly 59% of respondents chose the answer that

public hearings were ‘not useful, public opinions are rarely

adopted’. In other words, most people thought that hearings

were not useful and/or that public opinion was rarely heeded.

Evidently, the simple circulation and articulation of news

articles and BBS messages throughout the Internet can prompt

outrage at the violation of the environmental law. Messengers

clearly identified the significance of the rule of law. In the case of

the lakebed-sealing controversy, hundreds of news reports

drew enormous public attention, and Chinese Internet users

responded proactively by leaving tens of thousands of BBS

messages and answering online surveys. There remained,

though, scepticism about the effectiveness of the open hearing.

The huge number of BBS messages in many websites

over such an environmental controversy mirrored China’s

transforming media landscape and the emergence of media

and civic power on environmental governance. The Central

at SINA.com.

n politics. Environmental protection is the ‘public environmental

As a public affair, it demands collective actions throughout the

he public and the media allows the public to have opportunities

ment is also under the scrutiny of the public and media.

flicts. With the introduction of the EIA, it was widely regarded

without EIAs. This does not only lead to the degradation of China’s

f the rule of law was being displayed through the processing of the

r processing future similar environmental illegal cases.

f ecological concerns and public opinions, they do not matter!

omic issues and legal issues. Tsinghua University is not

technical issues.

ple of promoting environmental protection knowledge! This is

or all departments, if they neglect the issue of environmental

e n v i r o n m e n t a l s c i e n c e & p o l i c y 1 2 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 7 1 – 8 3 79

Government’s increasing tolerance of online discussion about

environmental issues and SEPA’s support of media and public

scrutiny are evidence that they view the media and the public

as allies in safeguarding the environment in the course of

environmental democratisation.

Of course, the BBS messages conflicted with each other.

During the public hearing, experts from various disciplines

also stated different opinions for and against the project.

Unlike an online petition, not all the message writers hold the

same point of view, but display a diversity of opinions;

therefore, the focus of the controversy over sealing the Eastern

Lakes in the Old Summer Palace is not just about these

wrongdoings in environmental management of the Old

Summer Palace but more importantly about the demand for

transparency and a more democratic approach in China’s

environmental governance in the future.

6. An emerging environmental movement inChina

The question—is there an emerging environmental movement in

China?—was asked by Stalley and Yang (2006) when they

investigated environmentalism among university students in

Beijing between the 1990s and early 2000s. They found little

likelihood of the mounting environmental consciousness in

universities evolving into an independent environmental

movement. However, China’s environmental democratic

movement has emerged rapidly from the grassroots during

the past few years. The lakebed-sealing case, a milestone in the

history of environmental governance in China, has changed the

trajectory of China’s environmental democratisation, effec-

tively accelerating it. Since the outbreak of the lakebed-sealing

case in 2005, all kinds of environmental protection theme

communities have emerged in both the real social sphere and

cyberspace. This section investigates the emerging environ-

mental cyber-movement in China, providing evidence from

online interviews with bloggers. Here we investigate web-based

online groups, which are unregistered environmental NGOs

that operate mainly through the World Wide Web (compare

Yang’s 2005 classification of emerging environmental NGOs).

According to the 20th Statistical Survey Report on Internet

Development in China, more than 30 million Internet users

nationwide are considered to be bloggers (CNNIC, 2007). If a BBS

represents a conventional online communication technology,

blogging is a much more sophisticated network invention.

SINA.com has one of the largest and best-established blogging

systems of all the major Chinese websites; it features a blogging

circles system. By August 2007, the total number of circles at

SINA.com reached 606 358, containing 96 circles with the

keywords ‘environmental protection’ and at least a hundred

environment-themed blogging circles under other names.

Some 2 393 358 articles on a range of themes about environ-

mental protection were posted by SINA bloggers by the end of

August 2007. The rapidly growing online environmental

communities at SINA.com manifest the vibrant development

of an environmental blogosphere across the Internet.

Since SINA.com is a portal website that hosts BBS forums

and a blogging system, a valuable insight into the emerging

online environmental communities can be achieved with

online interviews of its members. Among the current

environmental blogging circles at SINA.com, online interviews

were conducted within SINA’s largest environmental-themed

circle—‘Environmental Protection Hand in Hand’, which had

570 members in August 2007. These online interviews aim to

obtain a profile of individuals participating in environmental

discussion in the blogosphere and to indicate the variety of

motivations influencing bloggers’ contributions to this kind of

online environmental community. There are 100 senior

members, appointed by the Chief Webmaster of this blogging

circle according to their contributions to the online commu-

nity, such as the quantity and quality of their articles. All the

senior members are online environmental activists who

regularly post commentaries and essays in their blogs. A fully

structured questionnaire of twelve questions in Chinese was

sent to all the senior members. In total 32 completed

responses were received from them about the current state

of online environmental communication in China.

The interviewees cover all age groups with more than two-

thirds between 18 and 60 years of age. Thirty out of thirty-two

interviewees had a university education and good environ-

mental understanding (one other was still at high school). The

only non-university educated respondent is a retired worker,

aged over 60 years.

Approximately 90% of the interviewees had read news

articles about the lakebed-sealing case from online and offline

sources. The respondents offered similar opinions about the

lakebed sealing to those found on the BBS. However, they added

more reflective (after the event) comments about the role of the

media (see Table 3). Most respondents thought the public

hearing and EIA processes about the controversy were positive

moves by the Central Government and meaningful in the

development of environmental democratisation. They also

thought that the media had successfully drawn the public’s

attention to this environmental conflict, providing a model for

future resolutions to environmental controversies. However,

two interviewees regarded them as ‘ridiculous cosmetic

projects’. Only three interviewees wrote BBS messages about

the lakebed-sealing case: that these educated, knowledgeable

and Internet-using interviewees did not participate much in the

online discussion on the lakebed-sealing case reveals the facts

that online environmental communication in China is a new

phenomenon and that conventional mass media are still

dominant information sources to the majority of the Chinese

population. On the other hand, some did participate in the

discussion, in itself a new possibility.

As ‘Environmental Protection Hand in Hand’ was estab-

lished in June 2006, interviewees have participated in

this online community for periods of 2–12 months. The

blogging circle was viewed as a good platform for members to

exchange and share information on environmental protec-

tion, while some felt that the circle was ‘home-like’. Their

expectations of the online community differ: ‘communicat-

ing with bloggers with similar interests on environmental

protection’, ‘some activities can be organised’, ‘use the

function of the new media, transfer the power of words to

practical actions’. All of them agreed to different degrees that

the rapid development of online environmental commu-

nities, environmental NGOs and mass media had promoted

the process of environmental democratisation in China. As

Table 3 – Representative sets of responses to interview questions.

Question 7: What is your attitude towards the lakebed-sealing project, the Environmental Impact Assessment and the Public Hearing?

Answer 1: In my opinion, the project can damage the local ecosystem. The officials outweighed the ecological health with ‘‘people’s’’

benefits. (11)

Answer 2: I am completely against the Old Summer Palace lakebed-sealing project. In terms of its EIA and public hearing, they are better

than none. I insist that the EIAs and public hearings should be held before the start of the constructions, which is the only way to produce

positive outcomes. (8)

Answer 3: Stop the lakebed-sealing construction immediately! Undo the lakebed-sealing! Save the Old Summer Palace! (6)

Question 8: Do you think the Old Summer Palace Lake-sealing Project is historic and representative in China’s environmental governance

transition?

Answer 1: Yes. The participation of more people can improve the effectiveness of environmental monitoring. (9)

Answer 2: Yes. I think that this incident symbolises that the Chinese public, educated people in particular, have strong environmental

awareness. Meanwhile, it sent the message to the Chinese Central Government that China’s environmental protection industry cannot

progress without involvement of the Chinese general public. (7)

Answer 3: Yes. This incident drew people’s attention to what had been ignored in the past, causing a huge discussion. (7)

Question 11: What do you think are the roles of online environmental communities, NGOs and mass media in the process of environmental

democratisation in China?

Answer 1: More and more public participation draws people’s attention to environmental protection, while laying solid foundation for

environmental protection in China. (13)

Answer 2: Environmental protection in China cannot progress without the help from the government. Mass media, especially BBS forums

and blogging circles on the Internet, can successfully uncover environmental abuses and improve people’s environmental awareness. NGOs

are the media between individuals and the government. They can observe the government’s implementation of environmental laws, while

organising activities to increase public involvement. Due to the current political system in China, China’s NGOs have little influences.

However, I believe they will be a powerful force in environmental protection, which we need to pay attention to. (9)

Answer 3: They should monitor environmental issues around the country, while spread seeds of environmental protection. (6)

Question 12: What do you think is your responsibility as an individual in China’s environmental protection?

Answer 1: Try my best to help China’s environmental protection. (16)

Answer 2: As a Chinese citizen, I think that I have the responsibility in environmental problems. First of all, I will start from myself. However,

it is far from enough. It is necessary to monitor companies’ and governments’ actions in environmental protection. We should proactively

use the environmental-themed blogging forums to involve the public in stopping environmental abuses. (9)

Answer 3: To myself, I will use my knowledge to improve environmental awareness among my relatives and friends. In terms of China’s

environmental problems, I feel frustrated, because they are too complicated. (7)

Note: Bracketed numbers indicate numbers of respondents agreeing with the comment; 32 responses were received in total. The remaining

responses were idiosyncratic (unique to a single respondent).

e n v i r o n m e n t a l s c i e n c e & p o l i c y 1 2 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 7 1 – 8 380

individuals and Chinese citizens, they all thought that they

have responsibility for conserving the environment. They

believed they should take actions to learn more about the

environment and use themselves to inspire the people

around them. One interviewee pointed out that existing

environmental organisations did not communicate well with

each other, which could potentially be a factor preventing

future collaboration between environmental organisations.

The interviewees generally saw the recent transition in

China’s environmental governance as an improvement.

While considering environmental democratisation to be a

positive transformation as a result of the interplay between

the Central Government and the non-government sector, all

the interviewees think that they will use their resources

proactively to promote environmental protection in the

communities around them both online and offline.

7. Discussion

The transition of environmental governance in China has

been slow and ineffective until recently. Since the beginn-

ing of the Modernisation Phase in the early 1990s, the Central

Government started to take environmental issues more

seriously. For the past few years, the democratisation of

China’s environmental governance regime has taken off,

despite continued repression in other arenas of social debate.

The lakebed-sealing case in 2005 is significant as a starting

point for a new stage in the transformation. Although the

Central Government is still dominant in managing the

environment, the mass media and various types of environ-

mental NGOs are being encouraged by SEPA to play more

important roles in decision-making over the environment.

The lakebed-sealing case has shown people how SEPA

may resolve such environmental conflicts by introducing a

public participation mechanism in the public hearing and the

EIA report.

During the past 15 years, the transparency of China’s

environmental governance has been increasing, while an

effective environmental legal system has been established.

During the past few years, institutional modifications were

made to increase SEPA’s administrative capacity in managing

the environment when the bureaucracy of environmental

governance was found not sufficient to tackle many environ-

mental problems. The non-government sectors, including the

mass media and all types of environmental NGOs, are enjoying

more freedom in reporting various environmental abuses and

helping raise environmental awareness among the Chinese

public, particularly with the assistance of the Internet. These

facts suggest that the lakebed-sealing case was not a showcase

but a turning point in the transformation of China’s environ-

mental governance.

e n v i r o n m e n t a l s c i e n c e & p o l i c y 1 2 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 7 1 – 8 3 81

There are three caveats to this conclusion. The first is that

Chinese government has become highly decentralised, and

partly as a consequence local leaders have become economic

actors in their own right, rather than simply agents of the

state (Goodman, 2008). There is likely therefore to be

variation in the conditions of environmental governance

in different parts of the country, and perhaps at different

spatial scales. Our conclusions about environmental demo-

cratisation perhaps apply most clearly to arenas in which the

central government is most prominent. That said, people

and the media are governed by the central government as

well as by local governments and may seek to generalise

the transformation of (central) environmental democratisa-

tion to more local states. Secondly, it is still early to tell

whether the changes we have observed represent a perma-

nent transformation. However, the lakebed-sealing case has

demonstrated to people and governments that public

involvement in decision taking can be effective. Thirdly,

there is no evidence that public participation in the hearing,

in the BSB, in the Eastern Horizon survey, or in the blogging

circles had any effect on the outcome of the lakebed-sealing

case. What all that participation has revealed—to SEPA and

to people generally—is that there is widespread interest in

environmental protection, anger at the lack of an EIA, and

recognition of the importance of the rule of law. Together

with the expressed cynicism about the value of public

hearings, these surely encourage SEPA to invite more public

participation in the future and to take public views into

account.

It is evident that the environmental governance regime in

China has become more open to public participation in the

processes of environmental decision-making. The institu-

tional and legal reforms within China’s environmental

bureaucracy encourage this public engagement in environ-

mental governance by tolerating criticisms from the mass

media, environmental NGOs and individuals, particularly

Internet users. This evolution of China’s environmental

governance regime has accelerated after the lakebed-sealing

case. More actions have been taken by the Chinese Central

Government to effectively implement environmental regula-

tions and laws in China, while both online and offline

media coverage of environmental controversies have been

fostered in order to provide public scrutiny in China’s ongoing

environmental democratisation. This rise of public scrutiny

signifies the Central Government’s conscious use of the

emerging media and civic power to tackle crises in environ-

mental governance. These recent transformations in China’s

environmental governance regime are the outcomes of the

interaction between government and non-government

actors: both play vital parts in China’s environmental demo-

cratisation. The recent progress of democratising environ-

mental governance could hardly have been achieved without

all these contributors.

China’s current environmental democratisation is distinc-

tive. When He (2006) investigated the Chinese path towards

democracy, he posed an interesting question: whether it was a

top-down approach of democratisation advanced by the

Central Government, or a bottom-up path of democratic

experiments that started first from the grassroots and local

levels, and then gradually spread into more regions and

upwards. Our evidence is that China’s environmental demo-

cratisation has adopted a hybrid approach with features of

both top-down and bottom-up paths. With the shift of policy,

the Central Government offers space for the rapid develop-

ment of grassroots non-government stakeholders, such as the

mass media and environmental NGOs. The mounting envir-

onmental demand from the grassroots reinforces the Central

Government’s political will to democratise environmental

governance. This interactive top-down and bottom-up rela-

tion between the Central Government and grassroots non-

government stakeholders establishes a positive feedback loop

to propel the future development of a democratic environ-

mental governance regime in China.

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Ji Ma grew up in Shanghai. He has completed a BSc (Hons) degreein geography at the University of Melbourne and is about to enrolin a PhD program.

Michael Webber is professorial fellow in the School of ResourceManagement and Geography at the University of Melbourne. Aneconomic geographer, he has spent the past decade writing abouteconomic and social change in China, and has a particular interestin water management in northern China.

Brian Finlayson is principal fellow in the School of ResourceManagement and Geography at the University of Melbourne. Heis a hydrologist, who has is also interested in the problems andissues involved in river management and water in China.