¶ … bureaucracy can occur anywhere in the world, despite wide cultural and political differences. The United States, Europe, China -- it makes no difference. The Three Gorges Dam offers a prime example. Over the many years of this project, the Chinese government, displaced residents, special interest groups such as environmentalists and anthropologists, and contractors have become so mired in on-again-off-again decisions, regulations and continuous controversies that the original ideas for this massive undertaking are completely lost. It seems logical that the entire venture should be delayed and then analyzed for future goals. It appears by recent newspaper articles that this just might be the case. In the middle of January, 2005, the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) ordered 30 large-scale projects being done for the dam to be stopped because of a lack of mandatory environmental impact assessments. Any firms continuing their work would be fined (although not heavily by relative standards). Despite this edict, on February 1, 2005, the China Three Gorges Project Corporation reportedly ignored the government's order to halt construction.

SEPA posted information about the offenders and the applicable laws on its official website. The dispute was picked up by newspapers around the country. However, the company still denied the projects were in violation of the law. "The corporation has all along abided by the law and has built our projects in accordance with the law, there has been no violation of the environment law in the three power station projects," the company's general manager surnamed Li stated. (China View).

Until...

Power plants, in particular, have been untouchable.
Yet on February 3, work was ceased on all 30 projects. This was recognized as a major breakthrough in environmental enforcement. In fact, it is actually the first time that the state environmental agency has won legal backing for a major effort since the National Environmental Assessment Law went into effect in fall 2003. According to a February 10, 2005, article in Christian Science Monitor (Marquand), this enforcement by SEPA is continuing. It appears, notes Marquand, that "Chinese leaders appear to be throwing their clout behind laws requiring environmental-impact statements for large energy-related projects." Apparently, even if the projects soon get clearance to go back to work, the government's public support of SEPA seems to be changing and giving in to growing numbers of Chinese who support stronger environmental policies. There are about 70 different local environmental groups in the country. Moreover, the environmental lobby in China has been given the opportunity to print its views in the state-run media, and in smaller private newspapers.

Leon of the Belfast Telegraph Digital reported a couple of days ago that this action by the government "calls the bluff of President George Bush, who has cited growing pollution in China as justification for refusing to join the Kyoto Protocol, which enters into force on Wednesday." Many attribute this change in China is due to the growing interest in the environment by premier Wen Jiabao and…