ABSTRACT
Since the advent of the “reform and opening-up” policy in the late 1970s, China’s economy has developed rapidly and continuously, and its gross domestic product (GDP) has grown by an annual average of almost 10 per cent in the past 30 years. 1 However, the rapid development has created serious problems for China’s environment because China’s traditional model of economic development relies on exploitation of natural resources, pollution of the environment, ecological degradation, and energy consumption, which lead not only to air, water, and solid waste pollution, but also to severe ecological degeneration. The confl ict between environmental protection and economic development is becoming ever more prominent. 2 A relative shortage of resources, a fragile ecological environment, and insuffi - cient environmental capacity now hinder China’s development. 3
* This chapter is part of the results of the Research Project on “ Current Trends of Chinese Law towards NonTrade Concerns such as Sustainable Development and the Protection of Environment, Public Health, Food Safety, Cultural, Social and Economic Rights, Labor Rights and the Reduction of Poverty from the Perspective of International Law and WTO Law ” coordinated by Professor Paolo Davide Farah at gLAWcal – Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development (United Kingdom) and at West Virginia University John D. Rockefeller IV School of Policy and Politics, Department of Public Administration, in partnership with the Center of Advanced Studies on Contemporary China (CASCC) in Turin (Italy), Maastricht University Faculty of Law, Department of International and European Law and IGIR – Institute for Globalisation and International Regulation (Netherlands), and Tsinghua University, School of Law, Institute of Public International Law and the Center for Research on Intellectual Property Law in Beijing (China). An early draft of this chapter was presented at the Conferences Series on “ China’s Infl uence on Non-Trade Concerns in International Economic Law ”, First Conference held at the Center of Advanced Studies on Contemporary China (CASCC) in Turin on November 23-24, 2011. This publication and the Conference Series were sponsored by China-EU School of Law (CESL) at the China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL). The activities of CESL at CUPL are supported by the European Union and the People’s Republic of China.
