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Chinese Research Perspectives on the Environment (Volume 3): Public Action and Government Accountability . Edited by LIU JIANQIANG . Leiden : Brill , 2014 xv + 279 pp. [euro]135.00 ISBN 978-90-04-26879-1
Book Reviews
The latest volume in the series Chinese Research Perspectives on the Environment is a timely publication. It features a selection of articles translated from the original Chinese volume Zhongguo huanjing fazhan baogao (known in English as The China Environment Yearbook) and includes some of the most prominent voices among civil society activists and Chinese academics working on environmental issues. The focus on public action and government accountability is important given the recent rise in both NGO activity and direct action by concerned citizens, particularly in 2012. The book is prefaced by a useful overview by Li Bo, former director of Friends of Nature, which is China's oldest environmental NGO and is responsible for compiling the yearbooks. It contextualizes environmental problems within China's rapid urbanization and provides a useful backdrop for the more specific topics tackled by each chapter.
The volume is then divided into ten parts. Part one, on public action, includes a chapter by Wu Fengshi and Peng Lin which describes recent mobilizations against pollution as a signal of a more mature civil society. It suggests that the increase in public protests in 2012 was met with faster response by local government and with more "rational and professional" (p. 33) action by NGOs, shifting from violent protests to demands for...