ABSTRACT
The empirical findings of the study demonstrate that Chinese local governments do take action toward green development on their own initiative rather than only when given orders by the central government. The puzzle posed by the literature is that many scholars conclude that local governments have strong incentives to pursue economic development at the cost of environmental protection. This chapter discusses an in-depth review of entrepreneurs, local officials, and guanxi’s power to control and access resources, mainly in the form of land and capital. An entrepreneur is “someone who specializes in taking responsibility for and making judgment and decisions that affect the location, the form, the use of goods, resources, or institutions”. After reform and openingup, private entrepreneurs set up thousands of firms that contributed to the nation’s rapid economic development; they are “the new rich” who have gathered huge amounts of wealth. As Kenneth Lieberthal concludes, local leaders control environmental regulation and access to local resources.
