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| Pix CECC YouTube Channel HERE |
It is interesting that at just about the time that the Norwegian Pension Fund Global produces a sustained examination of the environmental harms to which Chinese traditional medicine companies contribute (see discussion The Environmental Expectations of Tradition in the Era of Sustainability: The Norway Pension Fund Global Action to Discipline Chinese Traditional Medicine Enterprise) the The Congressional-Executive Commission on China held an important event designed to focus on Chnese environmental policies
China’s climate commitments and compliance, reliance on coal, shift toward greater renewable energy production, and export of carbon-intensive energy sources through the Belt and Road Initiative;
The role of civil society, including environmental nongovernmental organizations, researchers, and advocates and how they operate to influence policies and enforcement of laws and regulations;
Environmental challenges facing Tibet, including grassland management, ecological migration and displacement, and the downstream effects on other countries of Chinese dam projects; and
Labor and environmental practices in Chinese energy markets.
Each of these areas of focus strike at particularly sensitive areas. China's continued reliance on coal, exacerbated this year, underscores the difficulty of Chinese officials aligning strongly their policies and their implementation, a point that will be pressed at the U.N. It is of especial value because it is meant ot be used to suggest that Chinese internationalism through the Belt and Road contribute to climate degradation. The focus on civil society provides an opportunity to highlight the way that Chinese NGOs are now operating under a substantially different set of working rules than those in liberal democratic states. This has been a source of criticism in the West and with it the suggestion the suggestion of Chinese civil society isolationism that may impede global progress toward climate change and sustainability progress. The last two have obvious value for the position of the liberal democratic camp. The first provides an opportunity to suggest the continuing efforts of the West of more muscularly focus on the administration of the Special Administrative Regions; the second is meant ot tie back to the first point (coal) but now focused more intensely on domestic policy.
Lastly, it suggests the way that the Biden Administration and Congress are now returning to multilateralism. This is hardly the multilateralism of the era before the leadership of Xi Jinping or Donald Trump, but it does suggest the characteristics of engagement--both as to its utility and its form. But this is hardly a bad thing. It is clear that at least as far as the CECC chairs seem to suggest there is a space for cooperation building on China's successes even as China's failures are highlighted. Consider a portion of Jeff Merkley's opening statement (full text reproduced below):
This Commission is dedicated to faithfully and accurately reporting on all the issues we cover, including the environment and climate change. This hearing will provide perspectives on areas of successful environmental governance as well as violations of human rights and the rule of law. China is helping spearhead a shift toward dramatically greater production of renewable energy sources at the same time as it leads the world in building out coal infrastructure, both at home and through the export of coal-fired power plants through the Belt and Road Initiative. The Chinese government now prioritizes environmental protection and gives space for some elements of civil society to operate at the same time that it continues to harass and detain rights advocates like those documented in the Commission’s Political Prisoner Database.
This effort at even handedness is an interesting approach. While it may be lost on its audience abroad it may resonate effectively at home and among potential U.S. partners. And is is clear that the priority appears to be to play to potential U.S: partners and the CECC's domestic constituencies by remaining true to the fundamental mandate of the CECC to emphasize the irreconcilable differences between the U.S: and Chinese political economic models in ways that suggest that the U.S. model has much to offer (e.g., "Even where China takes positive steps to protect the environment, the government’s repressive and authoritarian nature can produce tragic human consequences." Merkley Statement, supra; to the same effect the Opening Statement of James McGovern, "For more than 15 years this Commission has monitored the Chinese government’s policies on the environment because of the nexus between respect for human rights and the rule of law and a society’s ability to address environmental problems."). The hearings, then, sit not just at a junction point around sustainability and climate change, but also at the borderlands between the Chinese and U.S. spheres of influence (and more importantly in the long run) of effective domination along emerging chains of global production and distribution. The state that puts its stamp on the meaning universe of sustainability and climate change measures, standards, and approaches, may likley dominate global trade and with it the direction of wealth creation and and its locus.
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China was created by the U.S. Congress in 2000 "with the legislative mandate to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China, and to submit an annual report
to the President and the Congress. The Commission consists of nine
Senators, nine Members of the House of Representatives, and five senior
Administration officials appointed by the President." (CECC About). The CECC FAQs provide useful information about the CECC. See CECC Frequently Asked Questions. They have developed positions on a number of issues.
CECC
tends to serve as an excellent barometer of the thinking of political
and academic elites in the United States about issues touching on China
and the official American line developed in connection with those
issues. As such it is an important source of information about the way
official and academic sectors think about China. As one can imagine many
of the positions of the CECC are critical of current Chinese policies
and institutions (for some analysis see CECC).
The Program description along with links to the testimony follows.
China’s Environmental Challenges and U.S. Responses
Virtual Via Webex | Tuesday, September 21, 2021 -The United States and China face myriad challenges related to the environment, from protecting air and water at home to global action to address climate change. As representatives of both governments meet in advance of the United Nations Climate Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, this hearing will explore timely issues related to:
- China’s climate commitments and compliance, reliance on coal, shift toward greater renewable energy production, and export of carbon-intensive energy sources through the Belt and Road Initiative;
- The role of civil society, including environmental nongovernmental organizations, researchers, and advocates and how they operate to influence policies and enforcement of laws and regulations;
- Environmental challenges facing Tibet, including grassland management, ecological migration and displacement, and the downstream effects on other countries of Chinese dam projects; and
- Labor and environmental practices in Chinese energy markets.
The archived hearing video can be viewed on the CECC’s YouTube Channel.
Opening Statements
Senator Jeff Merkley (Chair)
Representative James P. McGovern (CoChair)
Witnesses
Dr. Jennifer Turner, Director of the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
[testimony]
Dr. Jessica Teets, Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at Middlebury College and the author of Civil Society Under Authoritarianism: The China Model.
[testimony]
Dr. Emily Yeh, Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado. She is the author of Taming Tibet: Landscape Transformation and the Gift of Chinese Development.
[testimony]
Nyrola Elimä, a supply chain analyst and coauthor of a recent study, from the Helena Kennedy Centre’s Forced Labour Lab at Sheffield Hallam University, on the scope of forced labor in the solar supply chain in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
[testimony]
SUBMITTED TESTIMONY
International Campaign for Tibet
[testimony]
__________
Congressional-Executive Commission on China
Hearing
on
China’s Environmental Challenges and U.S. Responses
Tuesday, September 21, 2021 – 10:00am Virtual via Cisco Webex
Statement of Senator Jeff Merkley
Chair
Congressional-Executive Commission on China
-
Good morning. Today’s hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China on “China’s Environmental Challenges and U.S. Responses” has come to order.
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The United States and China face many challenges related to the environment, from protecting air and water at home to global action to address climate change. This hearing will expand the Commission’s understanding of these issues at a critical time. We are less than six weeks before the world meets in Glasgow for COP26, the pivotal United Nations Climate Conference.
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Events of this summer demonstrate the ravages of climate chaos, from the deadly flooding in Zhengzhou in central China to raging wildfires and heat waves in the American West. As the world heads into COP26, we face a stark choice: we can take urgent, bold, transformative action to transition to clean and renewable energy, or we can resign ourselves to ever-worsening impacts to our lives, livelihoods, and economies. Each of us has to do our part. Governments, especially China and the United States, must come to Glasgow ready to do their fair share.
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This hearing will shed light on the status of China’s climate commitments and compliance, as well as other pressing environmental issues such as: the fight for clear air and clean water; the actions of nongovernmental organizations to push for local accountability; the effects of climate change, grassland management, forced ecological migration, and mining on Tibetans; and the downstream effects on other countries of Chinese hydro-dam projects.
-
This Commission is dedicated to faithfully and accurately reporting on all the issues we cover, including the environment and climate change. This hearing will provide perspectives on areas of successful environmental governance as well as violations of human rights and the rule of law.
-
China is helping spearhead a shift toward dramatically greater production of renewable energy sources at the same time as it leads the world in building out coal infrastructure,
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both at home and through the export of coal-fired power plants through the Belt and Road Initiative.
-
The Chinese government now prioritizes environmental protection and gives space for some elements of civil society to operate at the same time that it continues to harass and detain rights advocates like those documented in the Commission’s Political Prisoner Database.
-
Even where China takes positive steps to protect the environment, the government’s repressive and authoritarian nature can produce tragic human consequences. In this hearing we will hear from a leading supply chain expert whose research uncovered evidence that the modern slavery Uyghurs are subjected to in Xinjiang and through the government’s labor transfer programs extends to China’s massive solar industry.
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The global economy must transition as quickly as possible to renewable energy sources like solar. But we cannot do so on the backs of slave labor. We need to help the solar industry transition to sustainable supply chains that respect human rights. That means diversifying supply chains away from reliance on those that use forced labor. It means building up the domestic manufacturing base here in the United States and in other countries abroad. And, most urgently, it means that the House of Representatives must pass and the President must sign into law the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act that Senator Rubio and I led in the Senate and that my cochair leads in the House.
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I look forward to all of our witnesses’ testimony. I hope this hearing will demonstrate that the United States can – and must – prioritize both climate action and the steadfast defense of human rights. We need to do both. We cannot trade away human rights for cooperation in other areas of the relationship with China. Fortunately, China has its own domestic incentives to take climate change and environmental protection seriously. I hope this hearing will deepen our understanding of how China can respond to those incentives and take urgent action, just as the United States must do here at home.
_________
Statement of Rep. James P. McGovern Co-chair, Congressional-Executive Commission on China
Hearing on “China’s Environmental Challenges and U.S. Responses” Tuesday, September 10, 2021, 10 a.m.
As prepared for delivery.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for convening this timely hearing on China’s environmental challenges.
For more than 15 years this Commission has monitored the Chinese government’s policies on the environment because of the nexus between respect for human rights and the rule of law and a society’s ability to address environmental problems.
The people of China continue to struggle not only with air and water pollution, and other hazards, but also with obstacles to the ability to advocate for change or seek remedies through their government.
This hearing comes five weeks before nations of the world gather in Glasgow at the UN climate change conference.
China and the United States are the top two emitters of greenhouse gasses. Solving the climate crisis will require both cooperation and a robust and genuine effort within each country to change its regulatory regime and consumption behavior.
President Biden’s top climate envoy, former Secretary John Kerry, has been engaged with his Chinese counterparts on bilateral cooperation. But we in America also need to do our job. We must pass robust domestic legislation to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, transform our economy, and ensure that future generations have a right to a habitable planet. There is no trade-off between the environment and the economy. We can create millions of good, high-wage green jobs that ensure economic prosperity and reduce our carbon impact.
I understand that some experts give the Chinese government positive marks for addressing climate change at a macro level. I look forward to hearing the assessment of our witnesses. Further, I would like to understand the extent to which Chinese officials’ decisions are guided by their sense of the county’s self-interest, in terms of the economic and social consequences of a warming climate.
This is important to know as the U.S. government figures out the modalities of cooperation with China.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has explicitly linked cooperation on climate with other issues. He essentially threatened to halt cooperation if the U.S. did not back off criticism of their conduct.
Is this a tactic to get us to stop caring about whether the Chinese government is committing genocide against Uyghurs, erasing democracy in Hong Kong, or jailing human rights lawyers? How do we respond?
Environmental progress in any country depends on actions at both the national and the local level. A focus on the Chinese government’s climate commitments should not deter us from looking at what is happening on the ground.
This Commission has reported on the Chinese government’s increasingly tight grip on NGOs and civil society, which has affected the environmental sector. Lack of transparency and uneven enforcement are obstacles. Environmental researchers and advocates have been suppressed and detained, including ethnic minorities.
Those jailed include former Xinjiang University President Tashpolat Teyip who has investigating pollution from coal mining, and Tibetan Anya Sengdra who campaigned against illegal mining and poaching in Qinghai.
We are also interested in threats to the ecology of Tibet. The Tibetan Policy and Support Act, which I was proud to sponsor, sets out U.S. policy on the environment and water resources on the Tibetan Plateau, and directs the Secretary of State to support collaborative research, encourage input from Tibetan nomads, and promote a regional framework on water security.
I hope to hear about practical steps we can take toward these goals.
Lastly, there is the solar industry’s role in Xinjiang. We need to deploy more solar technology, but we cannot abet the forced labor that the U.S. government has determined is used to produce solar components. Can the U.S. government encourage diversity in solar sourcing to reduce reliance on tainted polysilicon from Xinjiang? Does the coal burned to produce this material undermine climate goals?
Thank you, and I look forward to the testimony.
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