We the People' in China: Environmental Petitioning and Public Participation in Environmental Enforcement

• Author: Tseming Yang and Xuehua Zhang
• Profession: Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law/Professor of Environmental and Climate Policy, Institute of New Energy and Low Carbon Technology, Sichuan University, China
• Pages: 313-321

313

Chapter 11:

“We the People” in China:

Environmental Petitioning

and Public Participation in

Environmental Enforcement

Tseming Yang* and Xuehua Zhang**

In 2011, the W hite House created “We the People,” a website designed

to bring the First Amendment right to petition the government into

the Internet age. Not surprisingly, the website caught on quickly. By

spring 2013, some 7.2 million people had created over 178,000 petitions

and logged more than 11.6 million signatures.1 What was surprising was

that “We the People” had a lso become popular in China, leading to a slew

of petitions seeking White House intervention there. e requests ranged

from the ridiculous—banning imitation Lanz hou beef noodle soup, to the

sadly sincere—remonstrating with the Chinese government about the risks

to the environment and public health of a chemical plant to be constructed

in Yunnan Province.2 One petition even garnered over 100,000 signatures,

the threshold for triggering an ocia l response from the White House.3

1 Macon Philips, Sunshine Week: In Celebration of Civic Engagement, T W H B (Mar. 13, 2013,

10:45 AM), http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/03/13/sunshine-week-celebration-civic-engagement.

2 Dana Liebelson, e 7 Craziest Chinese Petitions Submitted to the White House, M J, May

10, 2013, available at http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/chinese-censorship-white-house-

petition. e Chinese petition gathering the most support involved an unsolved two-decades-old

poisoning case where the suspect was believed to be living in the United States.

3 William Wan, Frust rated Chinese Com plain to Obama, W. P, Nov. 9 , 2013, avail-

able a t http:// www.washing tonpost. com/world /asia_pac ific/fru strated-c hinese-c omplain-t o-

obama/2013/05/09/131e04a8-b8ad-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html.

* Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law; Director and Chief of Party, U.S.–China

Partnership for Environmental Law (2007-2010); Deputy General Counsel, U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency (2010-2012).

** Xuehua Zhang, Professor of Environmental and Climate Policy, Institute of New Energy and Low

Carbon Technology, Sichuan University, China.

Note: is chapter is adapted from Tseming Yang & Xuehua Zhang, Public Participation in Environmental

Enforcement . . . with Chinese Characteristics?: A Comparative Assessment of China’s Environmental

Complaint Mechanism?, 24 G. I’ E. L. R. 325 (2013). Devani Adams provided valuable

research assistance.