Discourse on climate change in China: A public sphere without the public

Abstract

In 2007 China passed the United States to become the greatest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO₂). In the same year a report was published by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Following this report, the Chinese media began to make a link between human activity and climate change. To analyse the climate discourse that has emerged since the publication of the report, this article draws on the argument of Guobin Yang and Craig Calhoun that China has a green public sphere. In China amid the messages to consume more are messages broadcast for the masses by the Chinese state and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) advocating ‘green’ and ‘low-carbon’ lifestyles with little mention of climate change or questioning of existing policies. Smaller spaces or publics exist and are primarily occupied by governmental and non-governmental elites that debate and discuss climate change in serious and playful manners. Yet it is in spaces that are not public where policies are being crafted which influence the emissions of greenhouse gases in China, while citizens focus on their economic livelihood.

Keywords

climate change discourse environment media propaganda public sphere

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abramson

Daniel

(2001) Beijing’s preservation policy and the fate of the siheyuan. Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 13(1): 7–22.

Bernton

Hal

(2014) China’s coal solution has carbon downside across globe. Seattle Times, 3 May. http://seattletimes.com/html/specialreportspages/2023517279_chinaenergyxml.html, accessed 16 November 2014.

Bonnin

Michel

Chevrier

Yves

(1996) The intellectual and the state: Social dynamics of intellectual autonomy during the post-Mao era. In: Hook

Brian

(ed.) The Individual and the State in China. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 149–74.

Branigan

Tania

Watts

Jonathan

(2010) Chinese PM rebuts criticism over Copenhagen role: Wen Jiabao warns US on currency and defends China’s place on world stage, saying his conscience is clear on climate deal. The Guardian, 14 March. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/mar/14/china-wen-jiabao-copenhagen-currency, accessed 1 May 2014.

Brechin

Steven R.

Bhandari

Medani

(2011) Perceptions of climate change worldwide. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 2(6): 871–85.

Bullard

Robert D.

(2009) Sociology of global climate change: Toward an environmental justice frame. In: Nagel

Joane

Dietz

Thomas

Broadbent

Jeffrey

(eds) Report on the Workshop on Sociological Perspectives on Global Climate Change. Washington, DC: National Science Foundation, 51–3.

Calhoun

Craig

(1993) Civil society and the public sphere. Public Culture 5(2): 267–80.

Calhoun

Craig J.

(2002) Imagining solidarity: Cosmopolitanism, constitutional patriotism, and the public sphere. Public Culture 14(1): 147–71.

Chamberlain

Heath B.

(1993) On the search for civil society in China. Modern China 19(2): 199–215.

10.

Chan

Ricky Y. K.

(2000) The effectiveness of environmental advertising: The role of claim type and source country green image. International Journal of Advertising 19(3): 349–75.

11.

China Center for Climate Change Communication (2012) Public climate change awareness and climate change communication in China. 28 November. http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/files/2sided-highlights-China-e.pdf, accessed 31 March 2014.

12.

China Civil Climate Action Network (2011) Exchange meeting on China’s climate change legislation between CCAN representatives and officials from Climate Change Department of NDRC. 27 October. http://www.c-can.cn/en/node/685, accessed 12 July 2013.

13.

Clapp

Jennifer

Swanston

Linda

(2009) Doing away with plastic shopping bags: International patterns of norm emergence and policy implementation. Environmental Politics 18(3): 315–32.

14.

Copsey

Tan

. (2013) China: How the People of China Live with Climate Change and What Communication Can Do. London: BBC Media Action.

15.

Des Forges

Roger V.

(1997) States, societies and civil societies in Chinese history. In: Brook

Timothy

Frolic

B. Michael

(eds) Civil Society in China. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 68–98.

16.

Duggan

Jennifer

(2014) China’s pollution levels spark boom in sale of air purifiers and face masks. The Guardian, 7 March. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/07/china-pollution-smog-air-purifiers-masks, accessed 9 March 2014.

17.

Eberhardt

Christopher

(2012) Imagining climate change: Towards understanding Chinese citizenship. PhD diss., The New School for Social Research.

18.

Economy

Elizabeth

(2010) The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

19.

Efird

Rob

(2010) NGOs and institutions of higher education in China’s environmental learning. Chinese Education and Society 43(2): 3–5.

20.

Fine

Gary Alan

Harrington

Brooke

(2004) Tiny publics: Small groups and civil society. Sociological Theory 22(3): 341–56.

21.

Fisher

Dana R.

(2004) National Governance and the Global Climate Change Regime. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

22.

Flower

John

Leonard

Pamela

(1996) Community values and state cooptation: Civil society in the Sichuan countryside. In: Hann

Chris

Dunn

Elizabeth

(eds) Civil Society: Challenging Western Models. London: Routledge, 199–221.

23.

Foley

Michael W.

Edwards

Bob

(1996) The paradox of civil society. Journal of Democracy 7(3): 38–52.

24.

Frank

David John

Longhofer

Wesley

Schofer

Evan

(2007) World society, NGOs and environmental policy reform in Asia. International Journal of Comparative Sociology 48(4): 275–96.

25.

Frank

David John

Robinson

Karen Jeong

Olesen

Jared

(2011) The global expansion of environmental education in universities. Comparative Education Review 55(4): 546–73.

26.

Fraser

Nancy

(2007) Transnationalizing the public sphere: On the legitimacy and efficacy of public opinion in a post-Westphalian world. Theory, Culture & Society 24(4): 7–30.

27.

Frolic

B. Michael

(1997) State-led civil society. In: Brook

Timothy

Frolic

B. Michael

(eds) Civil Society in China. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 46–67.

28.

Geall

Sam

(2011) Climate-Change Journalism in China: Opportunities for International Cooperation. Copenhagen: International Media Support.

29.

Goldfarb

Jeffrey C.

(2006) The Politics of Small Things: The Power of the Powerless in Dark Times. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

30.

Xin

(1993) A civil society and public sphere in post-Mao China?: An overview of Western publications. China Information 8(3): 38–52.

31.

Habermas

Jürgen

(1991) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Trans. Burger

Thomas

with Lawrence, Frederick. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

32.

Hess

Steve

(2011) Environmental protest and the greening of the state: A comparison of pre-transition Poland and contemporary China. Problems of Post-Communism 58(2): 45–57.

33.

Peter

(2008) Self-imposed censorship and de-politicized politics in China: Green activism or a color revolution? In: Ho

Peter

Edmonds

Richard Louis

(eds) China’s Embedded Activism: Opportunities and Constraints of a Social Movement. New York: Routledge, 1–19.

34.

Richard

(2012) Understanding Chinese real estate: The property-boom in perspective. In: Garrick

John

(ed.) Law and Policy for China’s Market Socialism. London and New York: Routledge, 87–100.

35.

Ikegami

Eiko

(2005) Bonds of Civility: Aesthetic Networks and the Political Origins of Japanese Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press.

36.

Ivanova

Nadya

(2013) Toxic water: Across much of China, huge harvests irrigated with industrial and agricultural runoff. Circle of Blue, 18 January. http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2013/world/toxic-water-across-much-of-china-huge-harvests-irrigated-with-industrial-and-agricultural-runoff/, accessed 30 September 2013.

37.

Kaiman

Jonathan

(2011) China closes solar-panel plant after protests. Los Angeles Times, 20 September. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/20/world/la-fg-china-solar-20110920/, accessed 4 October 2011.

38.

Keck

Margaret E.

Sikkink

Kathryn

(1999) Transnational advocacy networks in international and regional politics. International Social Science Journal 51(159): 89–101.

39.

Keeling

Charles D.

(1960) The concentration and isotopic abundances of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Tellus 12(2): 200–3.

40.

Landsberger

Stefan R.

(2001) Learning by what example?: Educational propaganda in twenty-first-century China. Critical Asian Studies 33(4): 541–71.

41.

Landsberger

Stefan R.

(2009) Harmony, Olympic manners and morals: Chinese television and the ‘new propaganda’ of public service advertising. European Journal of East Asian Studies 8(2): 331–55.

42.

Lean

Eugenia

(2007) Public Passions: The Trial of Shi Jianqiao and the Rise of Popular Sympathy in Republican China. Berkeley: University of California Press.

43.

Leiserowitz

Anthony

(2007) International Public Opinion, Perception, and Understanding of Global Climate Change. Occasional Paper. http://www.climateaccess.org/sites/default/files/Leiserowitz_International%20Public%20Opinion.pdf, accessed 7 January 2015.

44.

Lieberthal

Kenneth

(2009) Challenges and opportunities for US–China cooperation on climate change, 4 June. http://www.brookings.edu/research/testimony/2009/06/04-china-lieberthal, accessed 7 January 2015.

45.

Shu-Yun

(1994) The Chinese discourse on civil society. The China Quarterly, no. 137: 180–93.

46.

Maher

Erika H. M.

(2011) Chinese state media coverage of climate change and the future of China’s food and water security. MA thesis, Prescott College.

47.

Martens

Susan

(2006) Public participation with Chinese characteristics: Citizen consumers in China’s environmental management. Environmental Politics 15(2): 211–30.

48.

Melucci

Alberto

(2000) Social movements in complex societies: A European perspective. Arena Journal, no. 15: 81–99.

49.

Mertha

Andrew C.

(2008) China’s Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

50.

Offe

Claus

(1985) New social movements: Challenging the boundaries of institutional politics. Social Research 52(4): 817–68.

51.

Opening the floodgates: The great rivers of China are being dammed, regardless of the consequences (2013) The Economist, 19 September. http://www.economist.com/news/china/21586538-great-rivers-china-are-being-dammed-regardless-consequences-opening-floodgates, accessed 7 January 2015.

52.

Pity the parcel people: Online sales are booming in China. But where are the profits? (2012) The Economist, 17 November. http://www.economist.com/news/business/21566679-online-sales-are-booming-china-where-are-profits-pity-parcel-people, accessed 7 January 2015.

53.

Premier Li Keqiang meets the press (2014) Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 14 March. http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjdt_665385/zyjh_665391/t1137475.shtml, accessed 16 March 2014.

54.

Reiter

Paul

(2000) From Shakespeare to Defoe: Malaria in England in the Little Ice Age. Emerging Infectious Diseases 6(1): 1–11.

55.

Rose

Fred

(1997) Toward a class-cultural theory of social movements: Reinterpreting new social movements. Sociological Forum 12(3): 461–94.

56.

Seligsohn

Deborah

. (2009) China, the United States, and the climate change challenge. WRI Policy Brief, October. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute.

57.

Shapiro

Judith

(2001) Mao’s War Against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China. New York: Cambridge University Press.

58.

Sinha

Kunal

Griffiths

Michael

(2011) Get going with green: Closing the sustainability gap. OgilvyEarth. https://assets.ogilvy.com/truffles_email/ogilvyearth/Get_Going_with_Green_-_English.pdf, accessed 20 May 2014.

59.

Spegele

Brian

(2014) China emissions cap to depend on growth, official says. Wall Street Journal, 14 November. http://online.wsj.com/articles/china-emissions-cap-to-depend-on-growth-official-says-1415944269, accessed 16 November 2014.

60.

Stalley

Phillip

Yang

Dongning

(2006) An emerging environmental movement in China? The China Quarterly, no. 186: 333–56.

61.

Stockmann

Daniela

(2011) Greasing the reels: Advertising as a means of campaigning on Chinese television. The China Quarterly 208: 851–69.

62.

Stockmann

Daniela

Esarey

Ashley

Zhang

Jie

(2010) Advertising Chinese politics: The effects of public service announcements in urban China. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1673073, accessed 7 January 2015.

63.

Stoddart

Mark C. J.

Tindall

D. B.

Greenfield

Kelly L.

(2012) ‘Governments have the power’?: Interpretations of climate change responsibility and solutions among Canadian environmentalists. Organization and Environment 25(1): 39–58.

64.

Sullivan

Jonathan

Xie

Lei

(2009) Environmental activism, social networks and the Internet. The China Quarterly, no. 198: 422–32.

65.

U.S. Department of State (2014) StateAir U.S. Department of State Air Quality Monitoring Program: Mission China. March. http://stateair.net/web/mission/1/, accessed 16 November 2014.

66.

Wakeman

Frederic

Jr. (1993) The civil society and public sphere debate: Western reflections on Chinese political culture. Modern China 19(2): 108–38.

67.

Watts

Jonathan

(2010) When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind – or Destroy It. New York: Scribner.

68.

Weller

Robert P.

(2006) Discovering Nature: Globalization and Environmental Culture in China and Taiwan. New York: Cambridge University Press.

69.

Wells-Dang

Andrew

(2011) Informal pathbreakers: Civil society networks in China and Vietnam. PhD diss., University of Birmingham.

70.

World Values Survey (2010–2014). WVS_Results_v_2014_04_28.pdf, accessed 30 November 2014.

71.

Xie

Lei

(2007) Environmental activism in urban China: The role of personal networks. PhD diss., Wageningen University.

72.

Xie

Lei

(2011) China’s environmental activism in the age of globalization. Asian Politics and Policy 3(2): 207–24.

73.

Xuanze Diqiu Gebenhagen qihou bianhua dahui zhuanti baodao (Vote Earth: United Nations Climate Change Conference) (2009) Tencent. http://news.qq.com/zt/2009/Copenhagen, accessed 26 June 2013.

74.

Xue

Fei

Zhou

Peiqin

(2012) Greener on the other side?: A comparative content analysis of environmental claims in magazine advertisements in China and the United States. Journal of Magazine & New Media Research 13(2): 1–18.

75.

Yan

Yunxiang

(2010) The Chinese path to individualization. The British Journal of Sociology 61(3): 489–512.

76.

Yang

Guobin

(2005) Environmental NGOs and institutional dynamics in China. The China Quarterly, no. 181: 46–66.

77.

Yang

Guobin

(2009) Civic environmentalism. In: Hsing

You-tien

Lee

Kwan Ching

(eds) Reclaiming Chinese Society: The New Social Activism. New York: Routledge, 119–39.

78.

Yang

Guobin

Calhoun

Craig

(2007) Media, civil society, and the rise of a green public sphere in China. China Information 21(2): 211–36.

79.

Yong

Zhao

Campbell

Keith P.

(1995) English in China. World Englishes 14(3): 377–90.

80.

Zhongguo he Meiguo Gebenhagen xuanchuan zhan (The Copenhagen propaganda war between China and the United States) (2013) 9 December. http://news.163.com/09/1209/11/5Q3BGG7D00013EFS.html, accessed 26 June 2013.

81.

Zhongguo Huanjing Yishi Xiangmu (China Environmental Awareness Program) and Zhongguo Shekeyuan Shehuixue Yanjiusuo (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) (2008) 2007 nian quanguo gongzhong huanjing yishi diaocha baogao (2007 China general public environmental survey), 3 April. http://www.chinaceap.org/download/8.pdf, accessed 7 January 2015.

82.

Zhongguo Qihou Chuanbo Xiangmu Zhongxin (China Center for Climate Change Communication) (2013) Zhongguo gongzhong qihou bianhua yu qihou chuanbo ren zhi zhuangkuang diaoyan baogao (Zhongwen ban) (Survey report of public awareness in China on climate change and climate communication (Chinese version)). http://www.oxfam.org.cn/uploads/soft/20130428/1367146889.pdf, accessed 7 January 2015.