SYSU student Mark Qiu (Ph.D. canddidate in administrative law) has written a paper on the super ministry reform in China that occurred last March. The reform resulted in the elevation of the State Environmental Protection Administration to the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Below is a download link to paper and an abstract:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1273230
On March 15, 2008, China's 11th National People's Congress passed the super ministry reform (SMR) motion proposed by the State Council and created five "super ministries," mostly combinations of two or more previous ministries or departments. The main purpose of this SMR was to avoid overlapping governmental responsibilities by combining departments with similar authority and closely related functions. One of the highlights was the elevation of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) to the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), which we also refer to as the environmental super ministry reform.The reference to "super ministry" is short-hand for the creation of a "comprehensive responsibilities super administrative ministry framework". In order to promote comprehensive management and coordination, several departments are merged into a new entity, the "super ministry", based on their similar goals and responsibilities. By enlarging the ministry's responsibilities and authority, the reform essentially turns some inter-department tasks to intra-department issues, so one single department can cope with comprehensive problems from multiple perspectives, avoiding overlapping responsibilities and authority. Thus, administrative efficiency is increased and administrative costs are reduced. During this super ministry reform, MEP was upgraded and was the only department to retain its organizational structure and governmental responsibilities. This demonstrates the strong political will and commitment of China's central government to environmental protection. This article first introduces the background of the SMR, followed by a discussion of the motivations and positive impacts of the SMR in the environmental protection sector. The authors then analyze significant problems of the current environmental protection administrative framework, which the environmental super ministry reform can potentially solve but so far has not touched. Finally, the article presents recommendations on key issues for future development.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Vermont Law School Awarded $300,000 US AID Grant
Vermont Law School Awarded $300,000 Federal Grant To Expand VLS-China Environmental Law Partnership. See the VLS press release at http://www.vermontlaw.edu/x7762.xml.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Opening for a Deputy Director for Vermont Law School China Program
DEPUTY PROJECT DIRECTOR FOR THE PARTNERSHIP FOR ENVIRONMENTAL LAW IN CHINA
Vermont Law School seeks an extraordinary attorney with substantial experience in China, knowledge of environmental law, interested in the administration and development of our extraordinary Partnership in Environmental Law in China. Under the current Director, Professor Tseming Yang, the program trains Chinese attorneys in environmental law in China and Vermont, sends Vermont students to China, and produces collaborations and scholarship among its participants.
In the immediate future, the Deputy Director will have direct responsibility for the implementation of a new in-depth training project for Chinese law scholars at Vermont Law Scholars, involvement in the implementation of other parts of the ongoing program, and associated administrative responsibilities.
In the long term, the Deputy Project Director will acquire primary responsibility for the implementation and operation of the program, and share responsibility for development and the formation of strategic partnerships.
(1) Implement the strategic objectives of the Partnership under the supervision of the Director, Professor Tseming Yang.
(2) Provide assistance to members of the Chinese legal community in their efforts to become more effective environmental and energy problem solvers through:
§ Implementing environmental and energy law conferences, workshops, seminars, and roundtables in China and in Vermont.
§ Assisting in the design, funding, and taking the lead in implementing an LLM program for Chinese attorneys in Vermont.
§ Researching and consulting on regulatory policy, legislative drafting and general environmental and policy matter to Chinese government agencies.
§ Expanding and diversifying partnership activities by collaborating with law school faculty in China.
§ Implementing an Environmental and Energy Law Professors Network.
§ Strengthening collaboration on joint clinical and research projects at VLS and in China.
§ Administering and coordinating academic residencies at VLS for Chinese faculty and visiting Chinese graduate students.
(3) Seek and secure funding for all continuation and, as appropriate, expansion of the China project consistent with the goals set forth in section 2 above, including through foundation and government grants.
(4) Develop strategic partnerships with educational, environmental, and governmental entities both in China, the United States and elsewhere
.
(5) Oversee compliance with USAID and other funding sources’ requirements.
(6) Possible opportunity for teaching and faculty rank.
Essential Competencies
§ Knowledge of broad environmental and energy law issues in China.
§ Some proficiency in Mandarin Chinese and/or Cantonese highly preferred,.
§ Demonstrated fundraising capacity.
§ Demonstrated experience with grant administration.
§ Demonstrated teamwork and project management skills.
§ Ability to work flexibly on a range of assignments, and adjust to and prioritize a variety of complex and evolving tasks.
§ Excellent interpersonal, verbal communication and writing skills, as well as the ability to develop effective multi-agency/institutional relationships.
§ Interest and willingness to regularly travel to China.
Selection Criteria
§ Candidate must have an outstanding academic record with a J.D. and
§ at least 3 years of relevant work experience
§ Understanding of environmental and energy law.
§ Experience working with environmental and energy law networks in the US and China.
§ Experience and understanding of USAID regulations and processes, helpful.
§ Demonstrated achievement in positions that require strong analytical and writing skills.
§ Work experience with national and international policymakers, helpful.
§ Has presented to audiences in a variety of cultural and institutional settings.
§ Work or living experience in China highly preferred.
For more information about Vermont Law School and the Partnership for Environmental Law in China, please see http://www.vermontlaw.edu/x1463.xml.
To apply, please send a cover letter, curriculum vitae, and references to Diane Hayes, Director of Human Resources, Vermont Law School, PO Box 96, South Royalton, VT 05068. Electronic applications are preferred and can be sent to jobs@vermontlaw.edu. Applications will be considered as they are submitted. The position will remain open until filled.
9/19/2008
Vermont Law School seeks an extraordinary attorney with substantial experience in China, knowledge of environmental law, interested in the administration and development of our extraordinary Partnership in Environmental Law in China. Under the current Director, Professor Tseming Yang, the program trains Chinese attorneys in environmental law in China and Vermont, sends Vermont students to China, and produces collaborations and scholarship among its participants.
In the immediate future, the Deputy Director will have direct responsibility for the implementation of a new in-depth training project for Chinese law scholars at Vermont Law Scholars, involvement in the implementation of other parts of the ongoing program, and associated administrative responsibilities.
In the long term, the Deputy Project Director will acquire primary responsibility for the implementation and operation of the program, and share responsibility for development and the formation of strategic partnerships.
(1) Implement the strategic objectives of the Partnership under the supervision of the Director, Professor Tseming Yang.
(2) Provide assistance to members of the Chinese legal community in their efforts to become more effective environmental and energy problem solvers through:
§ Implementing environmental and energy law conferences, workshops, seminars, and roundtables in China and in Vermont.
§ Assisting in the design, funding, and taking the lead in implementing an LLM program for Chinese attorneys in Vermont.
§ Researching and consulting on regulatory policy, legislative drafting and general environmental and policy matter to Chinese government agencies.
§ Expanding and diversifying partnership activities by collaborating with law school faculty in China.
§ Implementing an Environmental and Energy Law Professors Network.
§ Strengthening collaboration on joint clinical and research projects at VLS and in China.
§ Administering and coordinating academic residencies at VLS for Chinese faculty and visiting Chinese graduate students.
(3) Seek and secure funding for all continuation and, as appropriate, expansion of the China project consistent with the goals set forth in section 2 above, including through foundation and government grants.
(4) Develop strategic partnerships with educational, environmental, and governmental entities both in China, the United States and elsewhere
.
(5) Oversee compliance with USAID and other funding sources’ requirements.
(6) Possible opportunity for teaching and faculty rank.
Essential Competencies
§ Knowledge of broad environmental and energy law issues in China.
§ Some proficiency in Mandarin Chinese and/or Cantonese highly preferred,.
§ Demonstrated fundraising capacity.
§ Demonstrated experience with grant administration.
§ Demonstrated teamwork and project management skills.
§ Ability to work flexibly on a range of assignments, and adjust to and prioritize a variety of complex and evolving tasks.
§ Excellent interpersonal, verbal communication and writing skills, as well as the ability to develop effective multi-agency/institutional relationships.
§ Interest and willingness to regularly travel to China.
Selection Criteria
§ Candidate must have an outstanding academic record with a J.D. and
§ at least 3 years of relevant work experience
§ Understanding of environmental and energy law.
§ Experience working with environmental and energy law networks in the US and China.
§ Experience and understanding of USAID regulations and processes, helpful.
§ Demonstrated achievement in positions that require strong analytical and writing skills.
§ Work experience with national and international policymakers, helpful.
§ Has presented to audiences in a variety of cultural and institutional settings.
§ Work or living experience in China highly preferred.
For more information about Vermont Law School and the Partnership for Environmental Law in China, please see http://www.vermontlaw.edu/x1463.xml.
To apply, please send a cover letter, curriculum vitae, and references to Diane Hayes, Director of Human Resources, Vermont Law School, PO Box 96, South Royalton, VT 05068. Electronic applications are preferred and can be sent to jobs@vermontlaw.edu. Applications will be considered as they are submitted. The position will remain open until filled.
9/19/2008
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Sun Yat-sen University Roundtable on "Environmental Federalism" and local environmental protection bureaus in China
Lots has happened, and I have fallen into the same trap that many other bloggers fall into – getting busy and neglecting their blogs. If anybody has been checking here and not found anything valuable and new over the past 10 months or so, since I was last active, I apologize.
Over the last 10 months or so, Vermont Law School has been engaged in rolling out a major environmental law program in South China, focused on academic exchanges, training workshops and conferences, and research. We have held 2 major conferences, one in March at VLS, on the state of China’s environmental regulatory system, and one in May at Sun Yat-sen University on energy efficiency and resource use. We have also hosted 3 SYSU exchange students for our environmental law summer program. Furthermore, one faculty from SYSU has already settled in as a visiting scholar for the fall semester. A second will be arriving shortly to commence her fall semester academic residence. Over the summer, we also hosted an environmental law workshop at VLS for a Chinese environmental lawyer and a judge of China’s Supreme People’s Court. And most significantly for me, possibly, I have become the director of the Vermont Law School -- Sun Yat-sen University Partnership for Environmental Law in China. Over the coming month or so, I will try to provide some catch up on the things have happened because there is some really interesting primary information, including some pictures of one of China’s supposed “cancer villages” that might be of great interest.
There are two recent events, however, that are worth noting. One is an August 24 Washington, DC seminar that my VLS colleague Michael Dworkin participated in. The day-long event was organized by the Regulatory Assistance Project with 5 senior officials of China’s State Electric Regulatory Commission. Other participants included a FERC commissioner and current and former utility commission chairs. The seminar addressed total system efficiency to reduce financial and environmental costs, while enhancing reliability. Topics included market rules, transmission calculations, financial incentives, long range resource planning and energy efficiency.
I recently also just came back from co-sponsoring a roundtable on environmental federalism at SYSU with EPA General Counsel Roger Martella. The roundtable took place on September 3, 2007 and was hosted by Sun Yat-sen University on American environmental federalism and its relevance to China’s central-local relationships in environmental regulation. It featured EPA General Counsel Roger Martella providing EPA’s experience on these issues. Chinese participants were Vice Director Yuan Daoling of the SEPA Southern Regional Supervision Center, Director Wu Hongjie of the Guangdong Province Environmental Protection Bureau Supervision Office (also Zhang Min and Zhuo Yu from Guangdong EPB), and Director Zheng Zewen of the Guangzhou EPB Law and Policy Office. I was also excited to see a number of Guangdong province environmental law professors attend. (Some of the names that I caught were Prof. Du Wanping of Jinan University Law School, Prof. Xing Hong of the Guangdong Business Study College Law School, Prof. Wei Xu and Prof. Gao Min of the South China University of Agriculture Law School, Prof. Hu Danyin of the Guangdong Judicial and Police College, Prof. Cheng Yuyan of the Guangdong Administrative College, and Professors Jiao Bo, Prof. Li Lei, Prof. Li Zhiping, Vice Dean Zhou Linbin, and Prof. Zhang Baozhu of Sun Yat Sen University Law School). Martella was accompanied by Steve Wolfson, a senior attorney in EPA Office of General Counsel and a long-time friend of mine. Kurt Aufderheide and Gloria Ma of the Guangzhou U.S. Consulate attended. Superb translation of the roundtable (of course, since Roger Martella and Steve Wolfson do not speak Chinese) was provided by Jingjing Liu of our program, as assisted by Gloria Ma. In addition, another 15-20 SYSU graduate law students attended the roundtable, including our summer exchange students Ningfei (Samantha) Qin, Cheng (Richard) Li, and Qing (Thomas) Chen.
(I had not met Martella previously, by the way. But he was just a perfectly delightful, inquisitive, and open-minded individuals, and quite a hit with everybody who attended the roundtable. He mentioned to me that he had come to his week-long China trip with his entire family, wife and three kids – a 7-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a 7 month-old baby. The audacity to travel with so many and such young kids all the way to China does deserve respect!)
Martella basically provided a terrific overview of some of EPA’s programs and recent events that have raised environmental federalism issues. While China is a unitary governmental system, unlike the federal system of the United States, the issue had great relevance because there underlying similarities in the challenge of distributing regulatory and enforcement powers between the central and local environmental regulatory offices. Most importantly, with EPA’s assistance, China’s SEPA has in recent years been involved in the creation of a system of regional offices, similar to EPA’s regional offices. EPA’s experience in these issues has therefore been of great interest and importance to such efforts.
For an American-trained environmental lawyer like me, the most interesting information in this roundtable came from the presentations by our Guangdong province colleagues. All of them were local officials. A counterpoint to the central government officials that are the primary sources of information and contacts for US officials on trips such as that of Martella.
SEPA’s Southern Regional Supervision Center was formally created only in June of 2006, though they have been in existence as a research center since at least 2004 or so. There are at least 5 other Regional Supervision Offices. The Southern RSO cover Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Guangxi, and Hainan.
Their function is rather ambiguous, as they do not have primary enforcement authority. This was in fact one of the great challenges that Yuan Daoling mentioned to me personally later in making their office more effective. He summarized the functions of their office as: 1) supervision of local and provincial EPB compliance with laws, 2) investigating serious pollution occurrences, 3) coordinating across provincial lines, 4) providing emergency response to serious pollution incidents, 5) accepting cases and participating in enforcement, 6) investigating sources of pollution and supervising construction and compliance with the 3-simultenaities requirement, 7) supervising the conservation of natural resource sites, 8) receiving complaints about cross-provincial pollution, and 9) dealing with any other cases assigned by SEPA. Overall, their primary duties are, however, to supervise the work of provincial and local EPBs, rather than investigating cases and bringing enforcement cases themselves, unless otherwise assigned by SEPA.
The Southern RSO has one director and two vice directors. Yuan joined the Southern RSO from the Hubei EPB. The office has an staff allocation of approximate 65 staff or so, but presently only 15 or so positions have actually been filled. As their most recent work on issues of provincial mediation, emergency response, and enforcement, Yuan mentioned a case of cross-provincial pollution between Fujian and Guangdong province that they were instrumental in resolving, an emergency response to a oil tanker spill in Hunan, and the supervision of an enforcement matter related to a waste electronic recycler at the border of Guangdong and Guangxi province. Curiously, that last case had come to the attention of the Southern RSO via information provided by a Greenpeace investigation.
The Guangdong EPB official, Wu Hongjie, provided some interesting info about his EPB. Their total provincial staff, including provincial level and local level offices, is about 9000 persons, of which about 6000 are administrative staff. Their primary function is to promulgate regulations and policies as well as on-site enforcement. However, of the total staff, less than 2000 are devoted to on-site enforcement. He believed that 2000 was inadequate to the work needed. (This provides an interesting parallel set of numbers to US EPA’s 18000 employees. Guangdong province has about a 100 million population.) Each year, about 6000 cases resulted in fines. The range of fines however, is rather large, as he mentioned to me later. Most of the fines are on the order of 100,000 RMB (about US$15000) or less. Last year, 2006, the largest fine, 1 million RMB (US$150,000), was imposed only once. (I think that I am remembering this correctly.) He acknowledged that such fines were frequently insufficient to deter pollution violations because it might simply be cheaper/economical for a business to pay the fines.
The final official to talk was Zheng Zewen, the Guangzhou EPB Director of Law and Policy. According to him, last year, his office fielded about 18,000 environmental complaints, which was 3% of the national total and 24% of the provincial total. While overall GZ’s environmental quality has improved in recent years, citizen awareness of environmental quality has improved as well, resulting in more complaints. About 87% of the complaints were related to pollution and noise from industry and transportation. Because the laws and litigation are oftentimes not adequate, he mentioned that ADR was a critical tool to resolving such disputes.
The roundtable presentations were a terrific starting point for furthering discussions on these issues, which we will be pursuing in the future.
Over the last 10 months or so, Vermont Law School has been engaged in rolling out a major environmental law program in South China, focused on academic exchanges, training workshops and conferences, and research. We have held 2 major conferences, one in March at VLS, on the state of China’s environmental regulatory system, and one in May at Sun Yat-sen University on energy efficiency and resource use. We have also hosted 3 SYSU exchange students for our environmental law summer program. Furthermore, one faculty from SYSU has already settled in as a visiting scholar for the fall semester. A second will be arriving shortly to commence her fall semester academic residence. Over the summer, we also hosted an environmental law workshop at VLS for a Chinese environmental lawyer and a judge of China’s Supreme People’s Court. And most significantly for me, possibly, I have become the director of the Vermont Law School -- Sun Yat-sen University Partnership for Environmental Law in China. Over the coming month or so, I will try to provide some catch up on the things have happened because there is some really interesting primary information, including some pictures of one of China’s supposed “cancer villages” that might be of great interest.
There are two recent events, however, that are worth noting. One is an August 24 Washington, DC seminar that my VLS colleague Michael Dworkin participated in. The day-long event was organized by the Regulatory Assistance Project with 5 senior officials of China’s State Electric Regulatory Commission. Other participants included a FERC commissioner and current and former utility commission chairs. The seminar addressed total system efficiency to reduce financial and environmental costs, while enhancing reliability. Topics included market rules, transmission calculations, financial incentives, long range resource planning and energy efficiency.
I recently also just came back from co-sponsoring a roundtable on environmental federalism at SYSU with EPA General Counsel Roger Martella. The roundtable took place on September 3, 2007 and was hosted by Sun Yat-sen University on American environmental federalism and its relevance to China’s central-local relationships in environmental regulation. It featured EPA General Counsel Roger Martella providing EPA’s experience on these issues. Chinese participants were Vice Director Yuan Daoling of the SEPA Southern Regional Supervision Center, Director Wu Hongjie of the Guangdong Province Environmental Protection Bureau Supervision Office (also Zhang Min and Zhuo Yu from Guangdong EPB), and Director Zheng Zewen of the Guangzhou EPB Law and Policy Office. I was also excited to see a number of Guangdong province environmental law professors attend. (Some of the names that I caught were Prof. Du Wanping of Jinan University Law School, Prof. Xing Hong of the Guangdong Business Study College Law School, Prof. Wei Xu and Prof. Gao Min of the South China University of Agriculture Law School, Prof. Hu Danyin of the Guangdong Judicial and Police College, Prof. Cheng Yuyan of the Guangdong Administrative College, and Professors Jiao Bo, Prof. Li Lei, Prof. Li Zhiping, Vice Dean Zhou Linbin, and Prof. Zhang Baozhu of Sun Yat Sen University Law School). Martella was accompanied by Steve Wolfson, a senior attorney in EPA Office of General Counsel and a long-time friend of mine. Kurt Aufderheide and Gloria Ma of the Guangzhou U.S. Consulate attended. Superb translation of the roundtable (of course, since Roger Martella and Steve Wolfson do not speak Chinese) was provided by Jingjing Liu of our program, as assisted by Gloria Ma. In addition, another 15-20 SYSU graduate law students attended the roundtable, including our summer exchange students Ningfei (Samantha) Qin, Cheng (Richard) Li, and Qing (Thomas) Chen.(I had not met Martella previously, by the way. But he was just a perfectly delightful, inquisitive, and open-minded individuals, and quite a hit with everybody who attended the roundtable. He mentioned to me that he had come to his week-long China trip with his entire family, wife and three kids – a 7-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a 7 month-old baby. The audacity to travel with so many and such young kids all the way to China does deserve respect!)
Martella basically provided a terrific overview of some of EPA’s programs and recent events that have raised environmental federalism issues. While China is a unitary governmental system, unlike the federal system of the United States, the issue had great relevance because there underlying similarities in the challenge of distributing regulatory and enforcement powers between the central and local environmental regulatory offices. Most importantly, with EPA’s assistance, China’s SEPA has in recent years been involved in the creation of a system of regional offices, similar to EPA’s regional offices. EPA’s experience in these issues has therefore been of great interest and importance to such efforts.
For an American-trained environmental lawyer like me, the most interesting information in this roundtable came from the presentations by our Guangdong province colleagues. All of them were local officials. A counterpoint to the central government officials that are the primary sources of information and contacts for US officials on trips such as that of Martella.
SEPA’s Southern Regional Supervision Center was formally created only in June of 2006, though they have been in existence as a research center since at least 2004 or so. There are at least 5 other Regional Supervision Offices. The Southern RSO cover Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Guangxi, and Hainan.
Their function is rather ambiguous, as they do not have primary enforcement authority. This was in fact one of the great challenges that Yuan Daoling mentioned to me personally later in making their office more effective. He summarized the functions of their office as: 1) supervision of local and provincial EPB compliance with laws, 2) investigating serious pollution occurrences, 3) coordinating across provincial lines, 4) providing emergency response to serious pollution incidents, 5) accepting cases and participating in enforcement, 6) investigating sources of pollution and supervising construction and compliance with the 3-simultenaities requirement, 7) supervising the conservation of natural resource sites, 8) receiving complaints about cross-provincial pollution, and 9) dealing with any other cases assigned by SEPA. Overall, their primary duties are, however, to supervise the work of provincial and local EPBs, rather than investigating cases and bringing enforcement cases themselves, unless otherwise assigned by SEPA.
The Southern RSO has one director and two vice directors. Yuan joined the Southern RSO from the Hubei EPB. The office has an staff allocation of approximate 65 staff or so, but presently only 15 or so positions have actually been filled. As their most recent work on issues of provincial mediation, emergency response, and enforcement, Yuan mentioned a case of cross-provincial pollution between Fujian and Guangdong province that they were instrumental in resolving, an emergency response to a oil tanker spill in Hunan, and the supervision of an enforcement matter related to a waste electronic recycler at the border of Guangdong and Guangxi province. Curiously, that last case had come to the attention of the Southern RSO via information provided by a Greenpeace investigation.
The Guangdong EPB official, Wu Hongjie, provided some interesting info about his EPB. Their total provincial staff, including provincial level and local level offices, is about 9000 persons, of which about 6000 are administrative staff. Their primary function is to promulgate regulations and policies as well as on-site enforcement. However, of the total staff, less than 2000 are devoted to on-site enforcement. He believed that 2000 was inadequate to the work needed. (This provides an interesting parallel set of numbers to US EPA’s 18000 employees. Guangdong province has about a 100 million population.) Each year, about 6000 cases resulted in fines. The range of fines however, is rather large, as he mentioned to me later. Most of the fines are on the order of 100,000 RMB (about US$15000) or less. Last year, 2006, the largest fine, 1 million RMB (US$150,000), was imposed only once. (I think that I am remembering this correctly.) He acknowledged that such fines were frequently insufficient to deter pollution violations because it might simply be cheaper/economical for a business to pay the fines.
The final official to talk was Zheng Zewen, the Guangzhou EPB Director of Law and Policy. According to him, last year, his office fielded about 18,000 environmental complaints, which was 3% of the national total and 24% of the provincial total. While overall GZ’s environmental quality has improved in recent years, citizen awareness of environmental quality has improved as well, resulting in more complaints. About 87% of the complaints were related to pollution and noise from industry and transportation. Because the laws and litigation are oftentimes not adequate, he mentioned that ADR was a critical tool to resolving such disputes.
The roundtable presentations were a terrific starting point for furthering discussions on these issues, which we will be pursuing in the future.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Giving a new meaning to greening the landscape . . .
This news item from Yunnan province, in the very south of China, would be hilarious if it weren't so sad. Gives a whole new meaning to the idea of greenery . . . . An item in NY Times on the same matter (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/world/asia/15briefs-MOUNTAINGREE_BRF.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)
Villagers outraged after quarry painted green (SCMP 2/14/07)
A county forestry department in Yunnan province has come under fire for spending more than 400,000 yuan to paint a former quarry green. Thousands of square metres of the hill, part of Laoshou Mountain in Kunming's Fumin county, were sprayed green in August after the quarry was closed, the Kunming-based Metropolis Times reported. Seven workers spent 45 days on the project which cost 470,000 yuan, the newspaper quoted one of the workers as saying.
A villager who lives at the foot of the hill said: "At first we thought they were spraying pesticide and would start planting trees soon, then we found the empty paint containers ...Why green the mountain with paint? It's not a building."
Some locals speculated that the project was meant to improve the fung shui of the new county government office, which faces the painted mountain directly, the report said.
"If the money was spent on buying saplings, they would cover several mountains," another villager said.
"The project is not useful and does not look nice."
A county government spokesman declined to comment on the report, saying he first needed to verify certain issues.
******
Lest anyone laugh about this foolishness, however, the idea is not new, certainly not to the U.S. Back in the early 1970s, Los Angeles tried to place plastic trees in the city because real trees kept dying from the urban pollution. The perversity of that endeavor led Lawrence Tribe to write a law review article (either in the Harvard Law Review or the Yale Law Journal, I forget) about the plastic trees controversy.
Villagers outraged after quarry painted green (SCMP 2/14/07)
A county forestry department in Yunnan province has come under fire for spending more than 400,000 yuan to paint a former quarry green. Thousands of square metres of the hill, part of Laoshou Mountain in Kunming's Fumin county, were sprayed green in August after the quarry was closed, the Kunming-based Metropolis Times reported. Seven workers spent 45 days on the project which cost 470,000 yuan, the newspaper quoted one of the workers as saying.
A villager who lives at the foot of the hill said: "At first we thought they were spraying pesticide and would start planting trees soon, then we found the empty paint containers ...Why green the mountain with paint? It's not a building."
Some locals speculated that the project was meant to improve the fung shui of the new county government office, which faces the painted mountain directly, the report said.
"If the money was spent on buying saplings, they would cover several mountains," another villager said.
"The project is not useful and does not look nice."
A county government spokesman declined to comment on the report, saying he first needed to verify certain issues.
******
Lest anyone laugh about this foolishness, however, the idea is not new, certainly not to the U.S. Back in the early 1970s, Los Angeles tried to place plastic trees in the city because real trees kept dying from the urban pollution. The perversity of that endeavor led Lawrence Tribe to write a law review article (either in the Harvard Law Review or the Yale Law Journal, I forget) about the plastic trees controversy.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Happy Year of the Pig
Today is the first day of the year of the pig. Happy new year to all of my friends, colleagues, and acquaintances from snowy Vermont. Unfortunately, there really is not much of a festive atmosphere here in Vermont since there is not much of an Asian community here. Nevertheless, after making the obligatory family phone calls, I am vicariously experiencing the festivities by watching new years programming on the CCTV 4 channel on cable.
The Chinese Small Animals Protection Association is asking the National People's Congress to draft a law protecting animal welfare. (SCMP 2/17) The focus seems have been an instance of cruel treatment of several hundred cats in Tianjin. It is interesting to see something like this in the wake of last years anti-rabies campaign. In a couple of cities thousands of dogs, some of them family pets, were clubbed to death as a preventative measure to curb the spread of rabies. (See, e.g., Xinhua 8/5/2006) Would a law banning animal cruelty have made a difference in such a campaign? Considering how poorly many laws are enforced, it does not seem likely.
By the way, I am not sure how widely folks have caught on to the following interesting tid-bit - last month, Mr. Xie Zhenhua was appointed deputy chief of the NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission). (Xinhua 1/19/2007) In case the name does not ring any bells, Xie Zhenhua was the former chief of SEPA until he resigned in December 2006 in an effort to "take responsibility" for the Songhua river benzene spill. The benzene spill fouled the water supply of the city of Harbin in Heilongjiang province and resulted in a several day shut-off of the municipal water supply in the middle of winter.
While, I think, it's always been clear that Xie Zhenhua was not the official primarily responsible for the spill or the mismanagement of the spill response, including keeping the contamination secret from the public, his forced resignation had been intended to send a signal that highly placed officials had to take responsibility and be accountable for government failures that had serious consequences. Xie's appointment is to one of the most powerful central government commissions. The elevation, only a little more than a year after his supposedly being held responsible for the Songhua river spill, is really a mockery of the idea of accountability. In all fairness to him, I suppose that he is really being rewarded for being the scapegoat and willing fall-guy for what happened with the mismanaged spill response. But it also means that the message of deterrence of holding high-ranking government officials "accountable," for example by forcing them to resign, has little substance and rings rather hollow.
The Chinese Small Animals Protection Association is asking the National People's Congress to draft a law protecting animal welfare. (SCMP 2/17) The focus seems have been an instance of cruel treatment of several hundred cats in Tianjin. It is interesting to see something like this in the wake of last years anti-rabies campaign. In a couple of cities thousands of dogs, some of them family pets, were clubbed to death as a preventative measure to curb the spread of rabies. (See, e.g., Xinhua 8/5/2006) Would a law banning animal cruelty have made a difference in such a campaign? Considering how poorly many laws are enforced, it does not seem likely.
By the way, I am not sure how widely folks have caught on to the following interesting tid-bit - last month, Mr. Xie Zhenhua was appointed deputy chief of the NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission). (Xinhua 1/19/2007) In case the name does not ring any bells, Xie Zhenhua was the former chief of SEPA until he resigned in December 2006 in an effort to "take responsibility" for the Songhua river benzene spill. The benzene spill fouled the water supply of the city of Harbin in Heilongjiang province and resulted in a several day shut-off of the municipal water supply in the middle of winter.
While, I think, it's always been clear that Xie Zhenhua was not the official primarily responsible for the spill or the mismanagement of the spill response, including keeping the contamination secret from the public, his forced resignation had been intended to send a signal that highly placed officials had to take responsibility and be accountable for government failures that had serious consequences. Xie's appointment is to one of the most powerful central government commissions. The elevation, only a little more than a year after his supposedly being held responsible for the Songhua river spill, is really a mockery of the idea of accountability. In all fairness to him, I suppose that he is really being rewarded for being the scapegoat and willing fall-guy for what happened with the mismanaged spill response. But it also means that the message of deterrence of holding high-ranking government officials "accountable," for example by forcing them to resign, has little substance and rings rather hollow.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
SNOW!
Citizen Yang has been inundated with snow. On Wednesday, after having received only a few inches of snow at a time all winter, we received about 3 feet (about 1 meter of snow) in one day. My snow-plow guy had to come twice and I spent several hours shoveling snow.More evidence of climate change? Who knows . . .
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