Environmental Advocacy in a Globalising China: Non-Governmental Organisation Engagement with the Green Belt and Road Initiative

AbstractAlthough the Belt and Road Initiative presents growth opportunities for less developed regions, it also raises concerns about negative environmental impacts and sustainability. Despite proliferating academic interest in China’s efforts to green the Belt and Road Initiative, the engagement of non-governmental organisations in policymaking has been understudied. This research marks the first empirical effort to examine the interactions between environmental non-governmental organisations and the Chinese government under the banner of a green Belt and Road Initiative. It finds that non-governmental organisations have employed four strategies to engage with the state-led initiative – civil diplomacy, development partnership, service provision, and outside reform – and that development partners and service providers have been more active than the others in shaping China’s Belt and Road Initiative-related environmental policies. This article elucidates civil society actors’ opportunities and constraints in greening the Belt and Road Initiative and non-governmental organisations–government dynamics in a non-democratic context.Key Words: Belt and Road InitiativeChinaEnvironmental AdvocacyGlobalisation NGO–Government Relations AcknowledgementsThe author is very grateful to the many anonymous interviewees who candidly shared their opinions. The study has also benefited from the helpful comments of the anonymous reviewers. All remaining mistakes are my own.Notes1 The research that resulted in this article was approved by the University of Hong Kong Human Research Ethics Committee (No. EA210529).2 Several of the projects discussed in this article began prior to the BRI. However, many of them have now been incorporated into the BRI, either formally or into the rhetoric associated with the BRI.3 GDF is still considered a GONGO as the chairman is a retired high-level official and it is listed as a subsidiary of a state-run scientists’ association.4 The first regional chapter in Central Asia was launched in mid-2021 with support from government agencies and banks in Mongolia and Pakistan.5 Article 15 of the 1991 Civil Procedure Law provides that state entities, social organisations, and corporations may support the litigation filed by others against the infringement of the civil interests of the state, the collective, or individuals. In 2018, a revision of this law allowed the people’s procuratorates to support public interest litigation filed by social organisations.6 However, beyond organising two annual conferences, little progress seems to have been made by this network.7 Environmental public interest litigation was only legalised in China in 2015, through a revision to the Environmental Protection Law. Since then, about 30 environmental groups have brought cases to court, and all cases heard by a court have addressed domestic environmental issues.Additional informationFundingThe research is funded by the Early Career Scheme of the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong (No. 27613822).