SIGNATURE WORK
CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 2023

Under Xi Jinping’s leadership, China in recent years has made ambitious commitments in environmental protection domestically and internationally. Across central and local levels, officials have reached consensus on the importance of environmental protection as it has become a political agenda. In this process of environmental governance are also non-state actors environmental NGOs (ENGOs) who respond and contribute to the green national agenda through education, pollution monitoring, environmental public litigation, and policy advocacy. At the same time, many have observed stronger recentralization under the Xi administration. With regard to ENGOs’ role in centralized environmental governance, this paper argues that the tightening of the state’s control over the civic space has constrained the functions of the third sector in promoting the state’s environmental agenda and reduced the opportunities from state fragmentation. Based on a literature review and interviews with six ENGO members/leaders, this project aims at understanding how informal ties with government officials enable or hinder ENGOs in pursuing their agenda. In due course, this means greater responsibility on part of the state to handle contingent problems arising from environmental degradation and diminishing power of the civil society in participating in the process.