home > by publication type > academic modules > Academic Module: The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future
Email
April 2004
| Author: | Elizabeth C. Economy, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies |
|---|
Selected by The Globalist as one of the top ten books of 2004, The River Runs Black is the most comprehensive and balanced volume to date on China’s growing environmental crisis and its implications for the country’s development. Based on historical research, case studies, and interviews with officials, scholars, and activists in China, this book provides insightful analysis of the economic and political roots of China’s environmental challenge as well as the evolution of the leadership’s response.
What is a CFR Academic Module?
Academic Modules—featuring teaching notes by the authors of CFR publications—are designed to assist educators in creating or supplementing a course syllabus. The modules are customized packages built around a primary CFR text, such as a book or report, and include teaching notes; additional readings; video, audio, and transcripts of CFR meetings; Foreign Affairs articles; and other online resources. Use of these modules is free of charge. They may be used in part or in their entirety.
April 2004
Selected by The Globalist as one of the top ten books of 2004, The River Runs Black is the most comprehensive and balanced volume to date on China’s growing environmental crisis and its implications for the country’s development.
by Elizabeth C. Economy, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
China’s spectacular economic growth over the past two decades has brought with it skyrocketing pollution and a dramatic depletion of natural resources. Environmental degradation in China has also contributed to significant public health problems, mass migration, economic losses, and social unrest. The River Runs Black argues that China’s leaders have patterned their environmental protection efforts after reforms that have been largely successful in developing the economy: devolving authority to local officials, opening the door to private actors, and inviting participation from the international community while retaining only weak central control. The result for the environment, however, has been a patchwork of protection. A few wealthy regions with strong leaders and international ties have improved their local environments, but most of the country continues to deteriorate, sometimes suffering irrevocable damage. The book suggests that proactive policies backed by effective local enforcement could still avert an environmental crisis, but that if China does not change course, the implications for the country’s future development are dire. The book concludes by outlining three possible projections for the future: a best-case scenario, a continuation of the status quo, and further environmental deterioration.
The book examines environmental issues in China through a policymaking lens. It is written in a clear style accessible to either undergraduate or graduate students and would be appropriate for use in a broad range of courses focusing on either environmental policy or China.
Courses on International/Comparative Environmental Policy
Discussion Questions
China Studies Courses
The River Runs Black is appropriate for use in an introductory course on contemporary China or in more specialized courses, such as those focusing on China’s foreign policy, domestic politics and policies, economy, or environment.
Discussion Questions
2. China’s foreign policy
3. China’s domestic politics and policies
4. Economic development of China
5. Environmental issues in China
April 20, 2006
Speech
April 19, 2006
Beneath China's outward show of economic strength is an economic, social and environmental upheaval has turned the country into a caldron. For now at least, the Chinese regime is a greater threat to its own population, unmoored and angry, than it is to the United States or even its neighbors.
April 14, 2006
Elizabeth Economy, the Council's senior fellow for Asia, says that when President Hu Jintao of China meets President Bush at the White House next Thursday, the administration would like to see some progress on "sticky security issues" like North Korea and Iran. But she does not expect to see much help from China on these questions.
April 14, 2006
As China grows, its leaders are careful to reassure the world of its peaceful intentions. But Beijing's inexorable rise toward a position of political and economic leadership in Asia and beyond may put China on a collision course with the United States and other nations.
April 5, 2006
Russia and China are signing groundbreaking deals to deliver Russian oil and gas to feed surging Chinese demand. The economic cooperation is also reflected on the political side, where the two nations are joining to counter U.S. influence in Central Asia and around the world.
January 17, 2006
China is increasingly turning to Africa to supply the oil it needs to feed its booming economy. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing is on a six-nation tour in Africa this week to raise China's profile in the region.
June 6, 2008
Rising global energy demands have caused China to turn to Africa as a major supplier of oil. But Western states still make the vast majority of African investments and remain highly influential.
September 21, 2005
Remarks to National Committee on U.S.-China Relations,
New York
As Prepared for Delivery
Some twenty-seven years ago, Chinese leaders took a hard look at their country and didn’t like what they saw. China was just emerging from the Cultural Revolution. It was desperately poor, deliberately isolated from the world economy, and opposed to nearly every international institution. Under Deng Xiaoping, as Mr. Zheng explains, China’s leaders reversed course and decided "to embrace globalization rather than detach themselves from it."
August 2005
China's Economic Problems [And Ours]. David Dollar. The Milken Institute Review, 3d quarter 2005.
China has been a star in the development fi rmament for two decades, managing the largest reduction in poverty in human history and transforming the country into an economic power to be reckoned with. Even if growth slows somewhat – as one would expect when the easy ways to raise productivity are exhausted – it is likely to emerge in the next few decades as both the world’s largest economy and largest trading nation. But China’s transition to a mature economy supporting a high standard of living for its citizens is not a sure thing.
September/October 2005
Summary
Despite widespread fears about China's growing economic clout and political stature, Beijing remains committed to a "peaceful rise": bringing its people out of poverty by embracing economic globalization and improving relations with the rest of the world. As it emerges as a great power, China knows that its continued development depends on world peace -- a peace that its development will in turn reinforce.
September/October 2005
Summary
Chinese foreign policy is now driven by China's unprecendented need for resources. In exchange for access to oil and other raw materials to fuel its booming economy, Beijing has boosted its bilateral relations with resource-rich states, sometimes striking deals with rogue governments or treading on U.S. turf. Beijing's hunger may worry some in Washington, but it also creates new grounds for cooperation.
January 18, 2006
April 10, 2006
Watch Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and former U.S. Ambassador to China J. Stapleton Roy discuss U.S.-Chinese trade relations in light of Chinese President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to the United States.
March 20, 2006
Watch Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou talk about the history of Taiwan and the legal status of Taiwan today.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
The report of this bipartisan Task Force of distinguished leaders and experts represents a strong consensus on the importance of repairing America's immigration policy. It makes the case that maintaining America's political and economic leadership depends on attracting talented and hard-working immigrants, and on securing the country's borders in a smart, effective, and humane way.
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR
Complete list of Task Force reports
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
To request permission to reprint or reuse CFR material, please fill out this permissions request form (PDF), referring to the instructions on page 1.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.