Environmental Authoritarianism

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ENGLISH

Tibetan

  • Environmental authoritarianism tries to override provincial preferences for ongoing domination of nature in the hope of persisting with wealth accumulation. Centralised power is what this new era requires, and enforcing environmental compliance is just one facet of pervasive authoritarianism. This is not an official phrase, and there is no version in Chinese or Tibetan yet, but the idea is vigorously debated.

    China is deeply ambivalent about nature, believing both in harmony and mastery, protection and conquest. The tension remains unresolved, finding expression in the recentralised environmental authoritarianism. So is China practicing authoritarian environmentalism or environmental authoritarianism? Which is the core noun, which is the adjectival descriptor?

    Ancient traditions of living harmoniously with nature are making a comeback. But, the core promise of the CCP is to deliver moderate prosperity for all in a highly urbanised, densely populated consumer society.

    This unresolved tension plays out geographically, with upland western China, especially the Tibetan Plateau, designated under zoning laws as areas of restricted human carry capacity where landscapes and wildlife are to be protected. At the same time, the same standards do not apply to the densely packed lowlands of southern and eastern China, where the human footprint is fourfold more than the capacity of the land to support the human population.

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