Title: The Analysis of the Anticipated Effects on the Environment: Comparing Opinions concerning the Central versus Local Government's Views on the Three Gorges Project in China as Well as U.S. Views on it From 1992-2006
Abstract: purpose of this paper is to explore in detail conflicting views between local and national governments within China and broader areas surrounding struggles China's leadership faces as it deals with Three Gorges Project. project is largest dam ever built. Three Gorges Project is presenting to leadership of China challenge of forgoing international assistance from United States and World Bank in an effort to deliver to its people a source of clean electricity.' In end, this paper will argue that Chinese leadership, including current President HU Jintao,2 may well have been correct in building Three Gorges Project, even with terrible human toll that it continues to extract, because other alternatives-namely continued building of more coal-burning plants and/or building of additional nuclear power plants3-may be a greater evil to environment in long run. This paper addresses three areas: I; Differing Views from Central versus Local Governments, II; Three Gorges Project, and III; Clinton Administration versus George W. Bush Administration-The Future of U.S.China Foreign Relations. I. Differing Views from Central versus Local Governments China is in a period of real change as more people from countryside demand rights based upon its 1982 Constitution. It is this Constitution that will f Donald D.A. Schaefer, J.D. (2004, University of Washington), M.A. in Education (2001, University of Michigan), Ph.D. in Political Science (1999, University of Michigan), B.A. in Political Science and B.A. in Religion [double major] (1993, University of Hawaii). author wishes to thank Professor William H. Rodgers, Jr. to whom he took several environmental law courses from and who first truly inspired him to study global environmental law. He would also like to thank Ms. Nancy Kool who worked as his primary editor and to editors of this law journal who spent many hours of their time to bring this article to publication. This paper is dedicated to memories of professors Joan M. Fitzpatrick and Harold K. Jacobson, both of whom were a major inspiration. I William Shapiro, Human Rights and Environment: IV. China's Three Gorges Dam, 1997 CoLo. J. INT'L ENVTL. L. POL'Y 146, 152-55 (1997). 2 World Factbook: China, available at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-fact book/geos/countrytemplatesch.html (last visited Sept. 2, 2009). 3 See Jim Yardley, China's Economic Engine Needs Power (Lots of It), N.Y. TIMEs, Mar. 14, 2004, § 4, at 3, available at http://www.nytimes.coml2004/03/14/weekinreview/the-world-china-s-economicengine-needs-power-lots-of-it.html. Loyola University Chicago International Law Review Volume 7, Issue I Anticipated Effects on Environment: Three Gorges Project play a greater role as more local Chinese will argue their cases before courts. 4 Some of biggest changes have come first, in way law is viewed and second, in role that lawyers have been both viewed and used by average citizen. In end, it is President Jintao and those in State Council who are appointed by National People's Congress (NPC) that give direction to their nation. This direction, in turn, affects those in rural areas. Yet, it is daily lives in rural areas that will be affected by Beijing leadership and that will ultimately pay price-good or bad-for decisions regarding Three Gorges Project. Under traditional ideology of Qing legal system, there existed idea that person had no rights. 5 This absolute theory of power predominated much of early Chinese Law, and it was an ideology that continued into recent times. This is especially apparent with regards to what many in West consider basic human rights. To be exact, one might say that under traditional Chinese law (post-1900s), there was sense that government was parent and worker the child.'6 As Stephens explained, The consistent use by Chinese themselves, since very ancient times, of 'father and mother' image of state authority invites, if it does not demand, a disciplinary interpretation of social order in China.'7 It is perhaps this approach that has allowed Chinese government to rule over its people, and when necessary, to force onto them changes that few Westerners would allow. Governmental and local perspectives differ on what might be acceptable practices by government with regards to human rights. It is this cultural difference regarding human rights that Li has argued led to a misunderstanding by West of how China views human rights issues.8 As Li concluded, The United States and China are so different that one should not expect methods suitable for one society to be appropriate for other. 9 It is a struggle to understand Chinese human rights from a Western perspective, and one must always realize that views within this paper are written through an imperfect lens. This flawed view has influenced way that West (noticeably U.S. leadership) has viewed Chinese human rights. It is perhaps this misaligned view 4 There are four levels of courts within China: 1) Supreme People's Court (SPC), 2) High People's Courts (HPC), 3) Intermediate People's Court (IPC), and 4) Basic People's Courts (BPC). See RANDALL PEERENBOOM, LAWS. COMM. FOR HUM. RIGHTS, LAWYERS IN CHINA: OBSTACLES TO INDEPENDENCE AND THE DEFENSE OF RIGHTS 1 (1998) [hereinafter PEERENBOOM, LAWYERS IN CHINA]; RANDALL PEERENBOOM, CHINA'S LONG MARCH TOWARD RULE OF LAW 283 (Cambridge University Press 2002) [hereinafter PEERENBOOM, CHINA'S LONG MARCH]. There are also over 17,000 People's Tribunals within China that operate in a similar fashion to BPC, and whose rulings have same legal effect. PEERENBOOM: CHINA'S LONG MARCH, supra note 4, at 283. 5 PHILIP C.C. HUANG, CIVIL JUSTICE IN CHINA: REPRESENTATION AND PRACTICE IN THE QING 76, 108 (Stanford University Press 1996). 6 THOMAS B. STEPHENS, ORDER AND DISCIPLINE IN CHINA: THE SHANGHAI MIXED COURT 8 (University of Washington Press 1992).
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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