COP 15, China and Tibet

Another quick post to recommend an article by Ma Jun, director of Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs based in Beijing. I like the way Ma Jun has described the problem of the COP 15 agreement deadlock between developed and developing countries as having to do with issues of efficiency and equity. It is also always refreshing to hear reasonable Chinese or Tibetan (where are they?) voices that move environmental issues beyond the confines of national politics to the global level.

One may argue that Tibetan environmental issues must be seen within the context of the Chinese political economy and the historical context of their rule in TIbet. Agreed. In fact I argue further that finding solutions--i.e., reversing adverse Chinese development policies and practices in Tibet--would require working with Chinese environmental leaders. Talking about Tibet's environmental problems to the world, via Western media and supporters, will not reverse disturbing trends such as excessive damming of rivers or displacement of nomads. Tibetans working with Chinese environmentalists like Ma Jun, however, may start the incremental steps necessary to ameliorate these disturbing trends within the Chinese political economy.

I came to know about Ma Jun's work nearly ten years ago when he was an environmental journalist trying to get his book on China's Water Crisis translated/published in English. I was a fresh graduate student then at the Hatfield School of Government in Portland, Oregon. I vividly remember watching Ma Jun's presentation on China's Water Crisis live online, which was telecast from the office of International Rivers in Berkeley. I even managed to ask him a question during the Q&A session. It was quite an experience. What struck me from this exchange, although I don't remember what we talked about, was his affable personality and his deep sense of commitment to deal with China's environmental problems, character traits I noticed in several other Chinese environmental leaders whom I came to know in the coming years. Unlike the Communist brainwashed and racist Chinese stereotype that I had heard so many times growing up in exile, Chinese environmental leaders I met, such as Wang Yongchen, Yu Xiaogang and Wen Bo are all extremely nice and open-minded people.