Chinese environmental red lines and politics - how to read China

Today I saw just a small article in the Chinese Communist Party newspaper People Daily (人民日报 original article here in Chinese) titled “Environment Minister: we can’t cross environmental red lines just because the economic development has had some hiccups” and I think it is worthwhile to use it as an example to talk about three important facts, most China Newbies (and unfortunately even some self-styled experts) are unaware of. The content of the article summarized very shortly is below these three points.

1.      The whole party must follow the center, means local governments must work for the country according to the strategies and regulations defined by the central (i.e. national) politburo, not just for themselves or their district. To claim it is all about Xi Jinping wanting more power is way too simple. Related quote from the article: “我们当然也是坚决反对，因为它完全不符合中央的要求 “We decidedly fight against it (to slacking on environmental oversight to accomodate for a slowing economy), because it is not in accord with the central requirements.” To lead a party of more than 80 million members requires much more sophisticated methods than just top-down orders. More on that later.

2.     The communist party does manage China (i.e. holds the power) but it also has a political agenda, and a quite progressive one at that. In my view much too little is reported on the vast range of political strategies. It would help Westerners so much to read a lot about those, in order to be aware of the directions China is heading. Also, these strategies are the place where political debate happens in China. It is not an incessant struggle of who is in power as in Western democracies, but about what those in power should do. The discussion culture in China is not people publicly attacking each other, but to put forth different proposals, with disagreement between them often veiled or not even mentioned explicitly. This makes in challenging for journalists, but actually more political than the endless debate about the moral integrity of a president or his opponents. Related quote: 我们一定继续把这“4567”贯彻好 I guarantee we will fully implement the 4567 strategy. What this strategy means, can be easily found in the Chinese internet. Nonetheless these abbreviations make it hard for foreigners to follow Chinese political discourse, as it is full with them.

3.      Two sessions (annual meeting the parliaments in China) is important. For decades Western journalists have ridiculed the Chinese parliaments (consisting of one parliament for political leaders from each province which has the legislative authority, and one for public personalities from large corporation CEOs, successful entrepreneurs, scientists, even celebrities, and representatives of the “common people” like farmers and workers, which has a consultatory function). It is true that no proposal in the legislative parliament is ever voted down, so it is easy to deride it as “rubber stamp parliament” doing everything the Communist Party and specifically the Party chairman wants it to do, but it completely fails to see how the Chinese political process works. Because, in order to achieve a majority, there are extensive negotiations happening for every law, before it is voted on. These negotiations much like in Western countries can sometimes go on for years, even decades, and are not only happening between politicians, especially scholars (and most of all professors from famous universities) do participate regularly in such social discourses, and even sentiment on social media may have an impact on how these discussions develop. From a system theory perspective it is completely impossible to assume, a country the size of China could be led without feedback loops that tell the leaders what the population needs. These feedbacks don’t happen through parliamentary or presidential elections, but they do happen. Otherwise there is no way the Chinese would show such massive support for their government (regularly higher support than any Western democracy). That doesn’t mean I propagate the Chinese system for functioning democracies in the Western world. I am just saying, I see little reason for us to promote our political system for China. In this vain I find it exemplary how a Bing search for 两会 leads to tons of overviews of what has been decided at parliamentary sessions in the past (see above), while the official English translation "two sessions" leads to a very few pictures of the people participating in the parliamentary meeting, some random pictures, and the US politician Jeff Sessions (see below). Westerners mostly look at politics through the lens of "who" while Chinese look at it from the question "what". I follow some weChat groups focusing on international politics. They are full with translations of US media articles, but never those about who said what when to whom, and always about what was decided, how do scholars interpret it.

Before explaining the 4567 strategy, just quickly the promised summary of the original article in People Daily:

A journalist from the Japanese Nikkei asked the Minister for Environment, Li Ganjie, about voices saying environmental oversight should be more lenient to accommodate for the slowing economy. Mr Li replied the press secretary of the National Cabinet had been asked the same question on March 2, and he, Mr. Li, very much supports that answer [note: again a reference unhelpful for the outsider, i.e. a task for a journalist to find that answer], but he wants to add three thoughts. First, such voices reflect a fact in some places of the country, but not the main trend in the country. Second, we decidedly fight against it, because it is not in accord with the central requirements. If places are found to slack in protection for the sake of one time profits, we will severely go after the responsible people. Third, we will continue our fight against pollution (for “fight” he literally used 攻坚战, which means ?storming heavily fortified positions“) and ensure to provide tangible results, as quickly as possible clean up the environment, to ensure the people’s confirmation we have established the “Xiaokang society” (小康 literally means ?little health“. It stands for the CPC’s two 100-year-plans to establish a modestly prosperous society until 2020, and in the second phase a modernized socialism until 2035). From this statement we can see, that environmentalism is an integral part in China’s current definition of prosperity.

Just quickly the 4567 as an example of how many Chinese ideas are condensed, by finding (sometimes quite random) categories, and then numbering them. So the 4 stands for 4 attitudes or emotions (四种不良情绪和心态) which must be overcome in order to clean up China, these four are: 自满松懈complacently relax、畏难退缩shrink back for fear of difficulty、简单浮躁simple and superficial、与己无关nothing to do with me. The 5 stands for “5 fixed unchangeables” (五个坚定不移): 1 implement Xi Jinping’s thought on environmental protection, 2 implement the central CPC environmental strategy, 3 win the war on pollution, 4 improve the environmental governance system, 5 create an “invincible army” of environmental protectors. The 6 means “6 to do’s”: 1 do achieve “advancement in stability” (稳中求进established concept from 2012), 2 do consider all sides (统筹兼顾old concept from Qing dynasty) and achieve systemic solutions which give benefits to the environment, a high-quality economy, and to the common people, 3 do achieve integrated solutions (综合施策 no further concept behind this expression) comprising both of legal changes and administrative activities, 4 do attack problems from two sides (两手发力 literally “use two hands to gain momentum”) both macro-planning and micro-management of the economy, 5 do combine the point and the area (点面结合) point meaning focal points to achieve breakthroughs, area meaning to implement successful experiments in the whole area, 6 do seek truth and put it in action (求真务实 classic Marxist theory). Finally the 7 is seven areas that need environmental work: 1 clear skies, 2 diesel trucks, 3 Yangtze River, 4 Bohai bay (sea between China and the Korean peninsula), 5 stinking black water in city rivers (indeed!!), 6 protection of areas with water sources, 7 agriculture and rural village pollution.

Note how such a typical CPC strategy is both concrete enough, but also wide enough, to allow government officials at all levels of the country follow it, according to the needs of what they are in charge with. The only problem is there are probably dozens if not hundreds of strategies in all areas of politics, economy, and social development which compete with each other for attention, resources and smart ideas for implementation. This is how the CPC pushes a progressive political program into legislative and executive governments at all levels, and this is in part how Chinese politics work. This would be worth reporting on, rather than the hair color of Xi Jinping.