The Elaborate Paper Tiger: Environmental Enforcement and the Rule of Law in China

摘要

In recent decades, the eyes of the world have been trained on China’sremarkable feats of rapid economic development. Yet the enormousenvironmental toll associated with China’s growth has also drawn globalattention, as Chinese air and water quality plummet to historic lows. Epiclevels of environmental degradation have fueled a growing domesticconsensus that China must do better at reconciling these competing goals.This article reviews the contemporary challenges facing the second wave ofenvironmental governance in China (with an addendum addressingimportant environmental law amendments enacted as it went to press).