Authoritarian Environmentalism as Just Transition? A Critical Environmental Justice Examination of State Environmental Intervention in Northwestern China

Environmental justice for China’s rural populations is especially important in the context of China’s multifaceted environmental crises as existing disparities have exacerbated the unequal distribution of economic wealth and environmental harm between rural and urban communities. This chapter examines two environmental intervention programs in China to evaluate environmental justice outcomes under authoritarian environmentalism. Based on 136 in-depth interviews as well as government documents, official statistics, and reports from state-owned media in China between 2009 and 2016, our research demonstrates that the exertion of authoritarian state power in green transition may worsen environmental inequalities and dispossess the underprivileged rural populace in China. The findings indicate that just transition in China requires a multi-scalar examination on how state-led economic development initiatives and the material interests of the centralized bureaucracy shape the formulation and implementation of conservation programs and environmental regulation. We suggest that instead of viewing local communities as problems to be fixed by arbitrary administrative measures, the central state should utilize government organized NGOs affiliated with national ministries and grassroots environmental NGOs to incorporate community-based perspectives into program formulation and implementation. Institutional innovations that reconceptualize authoritarian state environmental intervention as constant responses and adjustments involving multiple stakeholders will be essential for just transitions in China and beyond.