This path-breaking collection covers the significance of China's extreme environmental challenges for both Chinese society and the world, how these challenges are impacting domestic Chinese society and its political institutions, and how these institutions are responding in their efforts to address the environmental problems. While there are several existing notable works on the nature of China's environmental crisis that describe contemporary China's dire environmental conditions, this book goes beyond description of the crisis and, furthermore, provides insightful analyses of how the government and people of China are responding to its environmental degradation with regard to such themes as: desertification, food security, energy, climate change, and water pollution.
Introduction: China's Environmental Crisis: A Global Crisis with Chinese Characteristics: From Confucius to Cell Phones; J.Jay Kassiola & S.Guo PART 1: CURRENT ECOLOGICAL CONDITIONS AND PUBLIC POLITICS IN CHINA: DESERTIFICATION, BIODIVERSITY, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND FOOD SECURITY Desertificaton in China: Problems with Policies and Perceptions; H.Jiang Network Public Management and the Challenge of Biodiversity Management in China; S.R.Jordan Changing Climate? China's New Interest in Global Climate Change Negotiations; W.Liang Environmental Stressors and Food Security in China; J.McBeath & J.McBeath PART 2: THE FORMATION AND POLICY INFLUENCES OF ENGOS (ENVIRONMENTAL NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS) IN CHINA State and Society in China's Environmental Politics; B.Alpermann Responding to Climate Disaster: The Cosmopolitan Challenge in China; P.G.Harris PART 3: ENVIRONMENTALLY-CAUSED SOCIAL CHANGE IN CHINA: NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES AND TRADITIONAL CONFUCIAN VALUES UPDATED Digital Power: Public Participation in an Environmental Controversy; Y.Yu & F.Zeng Confucianizing Modernity and 'Modernizing' Confucianism: Environmentalism and the Need for a Confucian Positive Argument for Social Change; J.Jay Kassiola
JOEL KASSIOLA Professor of Political Science and Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at San Francisco State University, USA. SUJIAN GUO Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of Centre for U.S.-China Policy Studies at San Francisco State University, USA.