ABSTRACT
Environmental grievances are common in China today. Such grievances are not new and have given rise to formal complaints and disputes since imperial times.1
In modern times, citizens send letters or visit officials (xinfang)2 for simple problems like a neighbor’s smoky coal furnace, as well as for the most intractable of problems, some of which have defied resolution in the courts and may involve death or destruction of livelihoods for whole communities. Since 1990, when environmental protection officials at the county level and above were required to keep records of complaints, the numbers of environmental grievances (xinfang) have increased dramatically. Between 1990 and 2004 the number of incidents about which people sent letters or visited Environment Protection Bureaus (EPBs) increased by 513 percent from approximately 111,359 in 1991 to approximately 682,744 in 2004.3
The increase in citizen environmental grievances could have political consequences for China.4 How authorities deal with these xinfang (complaints) could impact state legitimacy and social stability as well as environmental quality. Similar grievances formed the supporting pillars of influential environmental movements that challenged authorities in Russia and Eastern Europe,5
Japan,6 Taiwan,7 and South Korea.8 Chinese authorities have reason to be concerned about rising citizen anti-pollution complaints and protests. Chinese leaders recognize that left unmanaged this rising tide of contention represents, at worst, a threat to social stability.9
