Payne Institute Spring Seminar Series: China Goes Green

China Goes Green: Coercive Environmentalism For a Troubled Planet? What does it mean for the future of the planet when one of the world's most durable authoritarian governance systems pursues "ecological civilization"? Chines exemplifies a model of state-led environmentalism that concentrates decisive political, economic and epistemic power under centralized leadership. Professor Shapiro, who has worked in Chines since the mid-1970s, will introduce the concrete mechanisms of China's coercive environmentalism to show how "going green" helps the state to further other agendas such as citizen surveillance and geopolitical influence. Join with students, faculty and fellow alumni at this lecture presented by Hennebach Program in the Humanities, Daniels Fund Program, Division of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, and the Payne Institute for Public Policy. Judith Shapiro is Professor of International Environmental Politics at American University's School of International Service. Her books Mao's War Against Nature (Cambridge, 2001) and China's Environmental Challenges (Polity 2012, 2016) are standard works in the field. She was one of the first Americans to teach in China after the 1976 death of Mao Zedong.