China’s Green Path: The Way To Sustainable Development and The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Date
2009
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Bi-College (Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges). Department of East Asian Studies
Type
Thesis
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
Language
eng
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
Open Access
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
This thesis evaluates the claim that the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games were a "Green Olympics." Beijing was under intense international pressure to address the desperate state of the environment in preparation for the Games. Along with various human rights issues, China's environmental crisis was a primary source of the criticism that Beijing endured in the western media in 2008. The Chinese media reporting gave the opposite evaluation, that the Green Olympics were a great success. Part One investigates prevailing theories of sustainable development in China and reconciles them into a single model, called the Green Path. Despite the polemics in the media, Chinese activists and officials tend to agree with Western experts about the challenges that China faces on the path to sustainable development, and the actions necessary to overcome them. The consensus is that green technology and investment alone is not enough to rescue China from environmental crisis. Without actual political, economic, and cultural transformation, China is destined to continue its environmentally destructive behavior until the tipping point. Part Two compares the concrete actions taken in preparation for the Green Olympics to the criteria of the Green Path. The issue of water supply is used to exemplify the approach to sustainability that Beijing took and the shortcomings of the existing environmental evaluations of the Games. Although the campaigns and major projects were the most obvious green actions, there were also some substantive structural reforms as described in the Green Path theory. The 2008 Beijing Olympics were an important expedient of the positive transformation to the Green Path for China. By drawing international attention to the environmental practices of the capital city, the Olympics forced China to take measurable action within a given time-frame. Most of this action was in relative compliance with the Green Path agreed upon by the experts. It is impossible, however, to declare China or the Olympics sustainable or unsustainable. Sustainability is ultimately not a destination, but in the process itself. The 2008 Olympic Games prove that China is working hard to realize the way.
Description
Citation