POLICY ORIENTED MACRO-ANALYSIS CHINA'S FRESHWATER & HEALTH CRISIS
AN ESSAY ON THE TECHNO-INDUSTRIAL PUPPETRY OF OLIGARCHIC DICTATORSHIP
Asia Pacific Dispute Resolution Project Working Paper No. 18-3
University of British Columbia, Published on February 5th, 2018
Bérangère Maïa Natasha Parizeau

Abstract

This study on the topic of China’s freshwater and health crisis investigates the nexus of China’s political culture, legislative body, and judiciary, as it relates to environmental protection, policy coordination, and enforcement capacity. This synthesis must be understood within the context of China’s pollution of epic proportion, neo-liberal market fundamentalism, the possibility of climate collapse, and human extinction. This essay enlightens the ecological and health implications of unsustainable global consumption patterns on China’s population and on a planetary scale. This scholarly essay includes observations on China’s ecological traditions, water management in early Chinese societies, as well as a spell on the dragon mythos ritual-narrative. This analysis unravels the complexity of China’s challenges in light of China’s recent history, political economy, state corporatism, geopolitical reality, emerging judiciary, intensity of the pollution in the context of the urgency of the country’s biodiversity loss, desertification, water scarcity, and serious threats of climate change. This essay offers an overview of the ethical role and responsibility of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as corporate water stewardship within the international trade regulatory system. In addition, the following water management issues are analyzed: lake water eutrophication; groundwater depletion; the North-South water transfer project; the Three Gorges Dam; and the transnational hydro-politics. This investigation applies Dr. Pitman B. Potter’s theoretical approach of ‘Coordinated Compliance’ to the intersection of international trade and environmental protection. Finally, policy recommendations derived from Dr. Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann’s theoretical investigation of international trade law, human rights, and ethics are incorporated into this macro-analysis.

This paper has been successfully published on the APDR website, UBC's Institutional Repository (cIRcle), and the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN).

cIRcle permanent address: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/64568

SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3118538 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3118538  

Keywords: China, climate change, health crisis, pollution crisis, environmental protection, policy coordination, ethics, enforcement capacity, and human rights.

Suggested Citation: Parizeau, Bérangère Maïa Nathasha, Policy-Oriented Macro-Analysis: China's Freshwater & Health Crisis, an Essay on the Techno-Industrial Puppetry of Oligarchic Dictatorship (February 5, 2018). APDR Working Paper No. 18-3. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3118538