China takes action on environment

‘Social-risk’ test ordered for industrial projects to curtail protests

BEIJING— China’s cabinet has ordered that all major industrial projects must pass a “social-risk assessment” before they begin, a move aimed at curtailing the large and increasingly violent environmental protests of the past year, which forced the suspension or cancellation of chemical plants, coal-fired power plants and a copper smelter. The announcement came at a news conference Monday held in conjunction with the 18th Communist Party Congress, at which several senior officials addressed social issues ahead of the once-in-a-decade transition of power in the Chinese leadership.

By bringing in social-risk evaluations, “I hope we can reduce the number of mass incidents in the future,” said Zhou Shengxian, the environment minister.

When the protests began, they drew mostly middle age and older Chinese who had little to lose if the police put disparaging remarks about them into the files that the government maintains on every citizen. But over the past several months, angry youths have gathered from several towns and have used social media to co-ordinate their activities during clashes with security forces — new trends that are certain to have dismayed the country’s political leadership. Some local and provincial governments already have procedures for assessing whether a community will reject a planned project, separate from environmental-risk assessments. But Zhou is the first to say that the cabinet, formally known as the State Council, has ordered that no more major projects be started without a social-risk assessment, said Ma Jin, the director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based environmental group. Zhou also noted that effective Sept. 1, all government agencies in China had been ordered to make public all environmental-impact assessments by posting them on the Internet with a description of what the government planned to do about the assessments. The deci- sion was announced at the time, although it received limited attention.

Zhou said mass protests tended to happen when projects start without official approval, without proper environmental-impact assessments and without an assessment of community sentiment. Weak local governments may also be a factor, he said.

He did not provide a description of how social-risk assessments would be conducted, but he indicated that they would involve looking at the likelihood that a project would set off a public backlash.