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Many cities and rivers in China today are among the most polluted in the world due mostly to China͛s

rapid industrialisation over the last three decades. In the 1970s Chairman Mao began forming stable

development as an objective of the state. Stable development means finding the right balance between

industrialisation and conservation of the environment. Today, stable development has become one of

the top five objectives of the state in Beijing. However, the political system is failing to enforce stable

development policy because the policy conflicts with behaviour required to increase economic growth.

A point of internal conflict arouses when a government official must enforce a policy decreasing the

productivity of a business he or she part owns . Human nature would encourage the official to ignore

enforcing the policy and retain profitability of the business. Hence, this paper argues that most

problems of pollution in China are a result of the under allocation of financial resources through the

political system for motivating environmental agencies to enforce the policies they were created to

enforce.

This paper will limit the concept of political system to China͛s governmental agencies responsible for

problems of pollution, the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and Ministry of Environmental

Protection (MEP). The paper will highlight how SEPA and MEP are ineffective in enforcing environmental

protection laws because of underfunding from the central government. Comparing the size of staff

between SEPA and MEP and the US Environment Protection Agency, the paper will show how SEPA and

MEP are significantly understaffed in terms of their ability to enforce environmental laws1.

1
Wu, J.S 2009,͛The State of China͛s Environmental Governance After the 17th Party Congress͛, K

 
vol. 26, pp.265-284.
rurthermore, the paper will demonstrate how many government officials responsible for enforcing

environment protection laws are biased by a conflict of interest between private profit and public law

enforcement. Local government officials are often found regulating the practices of private companies

of which they part own2. The paper will highlight how problems of pollution will not be improved while

such conflicts persist.

rinally, the paper will show that private companies are allowed too much freedom through the political

system to conduct non-environmentally friendly business practices. Private companies are not required

to make records of their business practices available to the public which frees them of public

accountability 3. A major acid spill in Shanghang County, rujian Province will be examined to evaluate

how enforcing more transparency upon businesses may encourage faster clean up processes in the

future.

2
MacBean, A 2007, ͚China͛s Environment: Problems and Policies͛, ¢

K vol.30, no.2 , pp.
292-307.

3
Wang, A 2010, National Resources Defense Council Staff Blog, China, accessed 4 August 2010,
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/awang/the_rivers_run_red_what_can_we.html.
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Economy, E.C 2010, ¢




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Cornell

University Press, Itacha & London.

MacBean, A 2007, ͚China͛s Environment: Problems and Policies͛, ¢


K vol.30, no.2 , pp.
292-307.

Wang, A 2010, National Resources Defense Council Staff Blog, China, accessed 4 August 2010,
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/awang/the_rivers_run_red_what_can_we.html.

Wu, J.S 2009,͛The State of China͛s Environmental Governance After the 17th Party Congress͛, K

 
vol. 26, pp.265-284.