Sixteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed a global trend of incorporating non-trade elements into trade agreements. The most proactive actors started setting the inclusion of an independent environmental chapter (the US) or a sustainable development chapter (EU) as compulsory requirement for all their free trade agreements. Conventional wisdom suggests that democratic government facing electoral pressure from environmentalists are more likely than authoritarian government to enter into trade agreements with independent environmental chapters. Nevertheless, I find that since Xi Jinping’s rise in power in 2012, independent environmental chapters have been included into every new Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) China has concluded. What explains this puzzling contrast between reality and theoretical prediction? I argue that the Chinese regime, despite being authoritarian, is responsive to domestic popular grievances towards environmental degradation. This is demonstrated by including environmental chapters into trade agreements. Due to the rising popular grievance towards environmental degradation and its threats to regime stability, the regime came to prioritize environmental protection with political agenda. The change in priority on political agenda brought about changes in the bureaucratic structure governing environmental protections in China. Finally, this process empowers the environmental agencies in granting more regulatory power and builds up the institutional capacity in facilitating environmental chapter inclusion in trade agreements. This paper sheds light on academic understanding of how environmental populism occurs in authoritarian regimes and identifies the potential positive outcome, which contradicts conventional expectation. It also adds to the constant debate of balancing trade, environment, and development, especially for developing countries.