Organizers:
Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macao;
French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC)
Concept Note:
For more than three decades China has experienced unparalleled speed and levels of accumulation and economic growth enabled by swift arrangements of revamped Mao-era Marxist-Leninist institutions and market mechanisms. Such a ‘low-cost’ and export-oriented growth model and the rapid growth of cities have generated huge social and environmental costs and for the last two decades, one has witnessed an upsurge in environment-related contention and mounting criticisms from scholars, journalists, and ordinary citizens all pointing at the lack of sustainability of this paradigm. Studies have highlighted the consequences of air, earth and water degradation on the health and everyday life of the Chinese population. Hence, from the early 2000s, with the 2009 Stimulus package and the last five-year plan (2016-2020) to this year’s CCP 19th Party Congress, the issue of environmental and resource protection has made its way on the political agenda to become a top priority of the Chinese government, and public policies and institutions have been set in place to address these questions. What is the extent of environmental degradation in today’s China and how to assess its domestic and international impacts? If the Chinese central government seems to have measured the urgency of environmental challenges on the country’s pursuit of economic development, what about the implementation of public policies at the local level where local governments have built deeply entrenched alliances with economic forces and still tend to resist measures that harm short term economic growth and rent-seeking practices? Is there sufficient political will to alter the political economies that have been so successful at bringing about double digit economic growth, and thereby eventually change the allocation of resources? These are some of the questions that will be discussed in this round-table discussion on domestic and global
Programme:
Prof Jean-Paul Maréchal: « The role of China in the international climate regime »
Prof Jean-François Huchet: « Evolution and limits of environmental policies in China »
Speakers:
Prof Jean-Paul Maréchal
Jean-Paul Maréchal is Associate Professor of economics at Université Paris Sud. He is a researcher at the CEI (Collège d’études interdisciplinaires – Université Paris Sud ). His research fields are environmental economics, sustainable development, climate economics and international political economy. He has published numerous articles and six books. One of which was awarded the 2001 prize of the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. His latest book is: Chine/USA. Le climat en jeu, Paris, Choiseul, 2011 and his latest edited book is : La Chine face au mur de l’environnement ? Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2017.
Prof Jean-François Huchet
Jean-François Huchet is currently Vice-Chancellor for Research and Professor of economics (Chair of Chinese economy and comparative economics in Asia) at the National Institute for Oriental Language and Civilization in Paris (INALCO). He was also director of the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC) between 2006 and 2011. His research and publications have focused on the role of the state in economic development in China and India and on the global consequences of China’s economic development. He has published numerous articles and books on the Chinese economy. His latest books and articles include: The Environmental Crisis in China (in French), Paris, Presses de SciencesPo, 2016 ; China and India in Central Asia, A new Great Game?, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010
Q&A Session will be followed after the presentations.
The roundtable will be chaired by Eric Florence, director of CEFC, and Sébastien Colin, CEFC researcher and deputy-chief editor of China Perspectives.
The event will be held in English.
