Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-f9bf7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-15T08:52:32.924Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Evolution of the East Asian Eco-Developmental State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Abstract

The four major countries of East Asia—China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan—form one of the most densely populated regions on earth, and through the course of the late 20th and early 21st centuries the region experienced some of its fastest economic growth, propelled by the policies of state-led developmentalism. As a result of this density and these policies, the four countries in turn became some of the most environmentally degraded. As each achieved middle-to-high income status, however, the populace and then the regime in each country realized that they could not sustain either rapid economic growth or popular legitimacy without addressing the environmental consequences of this fast growth. The four states thus changed their fundamental economic policies from pure developmentalism to what we call eco-developmentalism, an attempt to reconcile economic prosperity with environmental sustainability. Although success so far has been mixed, this turn to eco-developmentalism has allowed these states to claim world leadership in mitigating environmental degradation.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Almeida, Paul, and Stearns, Linda Brewster. 1998. “Political Opportunities and Local Grassroots Environmental Movements: The Case of Minamata.” Social Problems 45 (1): 4760.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avenell, Simon. 2012. “Japan's Long Environmental Sixties and the Birth of a Green Leviathan.” Japanese Studies 32 (3): 423–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avenell, Simon. 2013. “The Borderless Archipelago: Toward a Transnational History of Japanese Environmentalism.” Environment and History 19: 397425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bebbington, Anthony. 2000. “Reencountering Development: Livelihood Transactions and Place Transformations in the Andes.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 90, 3: 495520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beeson, Mark. 2004. “The Rise and Fall (?) of the Developmental State: The Vicissitudes and Implications of East Asian Interventionism.” Western Australia University.Google Scholar
Blaikie, Piers. 2000. “Development, Post-, Anti-, and Populist: A Critical Review.” Environment and Planning A, 32, 6: 10331050.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boden, T.A., Marland, G., and Andres, R.J. 2017. National CO2 Emissions from Fossil-Fuel Burning, Cement Manufacture, and Gas Flaring: 1751–2014, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, doi 10.3334/CDIAC/00001_V2017.Google Scholar
Cao, Ling, Chen, Yong, Dong, Shuanglin, Hanson, Arthur, Huang, Bo, Leadbitter, Duncan, Little, David C., Pikitch, Ellen K., Qiu, Yongsong, Sadovy, Yvonne Mitcheson, de, Sumaila, Ussif Rashid, Williams, Meryl, Xue, Guifang, Ye, Yimin, Zhang, Wenbo, Zhou, Yingqi, Zhuang, Ping, and Naylor, Rosamond L.. 2017. Opportunity for Marine Fisheries Reform in China. PNAS 114, 3: 435–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jing, Chai. 2015. 穹顶之下 (Under the Dome). Documentary film.Google Scholar
Chao, Lucy. 2017. Green Energy, Green Economy Avert Decline. CommonWealth (Taiwan).Google Scholar
Chiu, Dominic. 2017. “The East Is Green: China's Global Leadership in Renewable Energy.” CSIS Report. https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fspublic/171011_chiu_china_Solar.pdf?i70f0uep_pGOS3iWhvwUlBNigJMcYJvX.Google Scholar
Cho, Hong Sik. 1999. An Overview of Korean Environmental Law. Environmental Law 29, 3: 501514.Google Scholar
Choi, Yoo-sung, and Wright, Deil S.. 2004. Intergovernmental Relation (IGR) In Korea and Japan: Phases, Patterns, and Progress Toward Decentralization (Local Autonomy) in A Trans-Pacific Context. International Review of Public Administration 9, 1: 122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, Russell J., Recchia, Steve, and Rohrschneider, Robert. 2003. The Environmental Movement and the Modes of Political Action. Comparative Political Studies, 36: 743–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. n.d. Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM).Google Scholar
Delman, Jorgen. 2018. Ecological civilization Politics and Governance in Hangzhou: New pathways to green urban development? Asia Pacific Journal 16 (17,1).Google Scholar
Economy, Elizabeth. 2004. Environmental Enforcement in China. In Day, Kristen A., ed., China's Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Deveopment, pp. 102120. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Edahiro, Junko. 2009. A Brief History of the Environmental Movement in Japan. Japan for Sustainability Newsletter 82, 83. Enerdata.Google Scholar
EPA (United States Environmental Protection Administration). 2018.Google Scholar
Escobar, Arturo. 1999. The Invention of Development. Current History 98 (631): 381–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Executive Yuan, Republic of China (Taiwan). 2018. New Measures Aimed at Boosting International Tourism in Taiwan. 20 April.Google Scholar
Falcus, Max, and Wong, Maggie Hiufu. 2019. Beijing is Building Hundreds of Airports as Millions of Chinese Take to the Skies. CNN travel, 25 May. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/china-new-airports/index.html.Google Scholar
Fedman, David. 2018. Wartime Forestry and the “Low Temperature Lifestyle” in Late Colonial Korea, 1937-1945. Journal of Asian Studies 77 (2): 333350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fu, Jianru. 2020. China's Sewage Treatment Industry Status Quo and Improvement Measures. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Sciences 514:030264, 6 pp. Accessed December 2020.Google Scholar
Garcia, Cathy Rose A. 2017. Beyond Hallyu: How Korea Plans to Attract More Tourists. Business World. December 8.Google Scholar
Gold, Thomas B. 1986. State and Society in the Taiwan Miracle. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Grano, Simona A. 2015. Environmental Governance in Taiwan: A New Generation of Activists and Stakeholders. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenpeace. 2018. Analysis of Air Quality Trends in 2017.Google Scholar
Gu, Hallie, and Thukral, Naveen. 2018. Soy Source: Brazil's Share of Soybean Exports to China Hits Record. Reuters, 25 January:Google Scholar
Haddad, Mary Alice. 2015a. From Backyard Environmental Advocacy to National Democratisation: The Cases of South Korea and Taiwan. in Carol Hager and Mary Alice Haddad, eds, NIMBY is Beautiful: Cases of Local Activism and Environmental Innovation around the World. New York: Berghahn Books).Google Scholar
Haddad, Mary Alice. 2015b. ‘Paradoxes of Democratization: Environmental Politics in East Asia.’ in Harris, Paul G. and Lang, Graeme (eds.), Routledge Handbook of East Asia and the Environment (Routledge: New York).Google Scholar
Haddad, Mary Alice. 2015c. Increasing Environmental Performance in a Context of Low Governmental Enforcement: Evidence from China, Journal of Environment and Development 24: 325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hager, Carol, and Haddad, Mary Alice, eds. 2015. NIMBY is Beautiful: Cases of Local Activism and Environmental Innovation Around the World. New York: Berghahn Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, and Moon, Chung In. 1997. The State, Politics, and Economic Development in Post-War South Korea, in Koo, Hagen, ed., State and Society in Contemporary Korea. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 5194.Google Scholar
Hatch, Walter, and Yamamura, Kozo. 1996. Asia in Japan's Embrace: Building a Regional Production Alliance New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henck, Amanda C., Huntington, Katharine W., Stone, John O., Montgomery, David R., and Hallet, Bernard. 2011. Spatial Controls on Erosion in the Three Rivers Region, Southeastern Tibet and Southwestern China. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 303 (1): 7183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, Ming-Sho. 2011. Environmental Movement in Democratizing Taiwan (1980-2004): A Political Opportunity Structure Perspective. In Jeffrey Broadbent and Vickie Brockman, eds, East Asian Social Movements. New York: Springer. pp. 283314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, Samuel P.S. 1975. The Economic Development of Colonial Taiwan: Evidence and Interpretation. Journal of Asian Studies 34 (2): 417–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hu, Wen-cheng, Chung, Shih-ming, Lin, Jui-chu, Fan, Chien-te, and Lien, Chen-An. 2017. An Accelerating Green Growth for Taiwan's Climate Ambition. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 79: 286292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IEA (International Energy Agency). 2020. Global EV Outlook 2020.Google Scholar
Japan Times. 2016. Japan's Government Aims to Help Local Airports Attract Foreign Visitors. 21 December.Google Scholar
Johnson, Chalmers. 1982. MITI and the Japanese Miracle. Stanford: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Chalmers. 1986. The Nonsocialist NICs: East Asia. International Organization 40 (2): 557–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
J.P. 2018. How China Cut its Air Pollution. The Economist, 25 January https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2018/01/25/how-china-cut-its-air-pollution.Google Scholar
Kim, Su Min. 2014. Shunning the Authority: Symbolic Purity and Autonomy in Consuming Non-Certified Organic Foods in Chengdu, China., Honors Thesis, University of Washington.Google Scholar
King, Betty L. 1975. Japanese Colonialism and Korean Economic Development, 1910-1945. Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia 13 (3): 115.Google Scholar
Ku, Do-Wan. 1996. The Structural Change of the Korean Environmental Movement. Korea Journal of Population and Development 25: 155–80.Google Scholar
Do-Wan, Ku. 2004. The Korean Environmental Movement: Green Politics through Social Movement. Korea Journal, Autumn: 185219.Google Scholar
Ku, Duwan. 2002. Environmental Movement and Policies During High Economic Growth in Korea. in Arayama, Yuko, ed., Environment and Our Sustainability in the 21st Century: Understanding and Cooperation between Developed and Developing Countries Nagoya: Nagoya University.Google Scholar
Chien-liang, Lee. 2010. 環境公民訴訟新典範─簡析台北高等行政法院九八年度訴字第五○四號判決. Huanjing gongmin susong xin dianfan: Jianxi taibei gaodeng xingzheng fayuan 98 niandu suzi di 504 hao panjue (The New Paradigm of Environmental Citizen Lawsuits: Analysis of Taipei High Administrative Court Decision 98-Su-504]. Taiwan Law Journal 152: 5767.Google Scholar
Lee, See-Jae. 2000. The Environmental Movement and Its Political Empowerment. Korea Journal 40: 131–60.Google Scholar
Lee, Su-Hoon, Hsiao, Hsin-Huang Michael, Liu, Hwa-Jen, Lai, On-Kwok, Magno, Francisco A., and So, Alvin Y.. 1999. The Impact of Democratization on Environmental Movements. in Lee, Yok-shiu F. and So, Alvin Y., eds., Asia's Environmental Movements. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Lewis, Joanna I. 2013. Green Innovation in China: China's Wind Power Industry and the Global Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Li, Nan, Ma, Ding, and Chen, Wenying. 2017. Quantifying the Impacts of Decarbonization in China's Cement Sector: A Perspective from an Integrated Assessment Approach. Applied Energy 185: 18401848.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Pei, Lu, Yi, and Wang, Jin. 2020. The Effects of Fuel Standards on Air Pollution: Evidence from China. Journal of Development Economics 146, 19 pages.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Litzinger, Ralph A. 2004. The Mobilization of “Nature”: Perspectives from Northwest Yunnan. China Quarterly 178: 488504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Looney, Kristen Elizabeth. 2012. The Rural Developmental State: Modernization Campaigns and Peasant Politics in China, Taiwan, and South Korea. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Government, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Lora-Wainwright, Anna. 2017. Resigned Activism: Living with Pollution in Rural China. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, David. 2009. The Two-headed Dragon: Environmental Policy and Progress Under Rising Democracy in Taiwan. East Asia 26: 5776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manufacturing Institute 2013 The US is Losing Export Market Share.Google Scholar
MAREX (Maritime-Executive). 2018. China Surpasses U.S. as Largest Crude Oil Importer.Google Scholar
Mertha, Andrew C. 2008. China's Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Ministry of Ecology and Environment (People's Republic of China). n.d. PM2.5 历史数据, (Historical Statistics of PM2.5). Accessed January 2021.Google Scholar
Moseley, Robert K, and Mullin, Renée B.. 2014. The Nature Conservancy in Shangrila: Transnational Conservation and its Critiques. In Yeh, Emily T. and Coggins, Chris, eds., Mapping Shangrila (Seattle: University of Washington Press), pp. 129152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Natural Resources Defense Council. 2016. The China Coal Consumption Cap Plan and Research Project.Google Scholar
Naughton, Barry. 2015. The Transformation of the State Sector: SASAC, The Market Economy, and the New National Champions. In Naughton, Barry and Tsai, Kellee S., eds., State Capitalism, Institutional Adaptation, and the Chinese Miracle, pp. 4671. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OICA (International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers). n.d. World Motor Vehicle Production by Country and Type, 2017-2018.Google Scholar
Perry, Elizabeth J. 2008. Chinese Conceptions of “Rights”: From Mencius to Mao—and Now. Perspectives on Politics 6, 1: 3750.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, Elizabeth J., and Harrell, Stevan. 1983. Syncretic Sects in Chinese History: A Symposium. Modern China 8 (3-4).Google Scholar
Rapoza, Kenneth. 2015. Are Chinese Investments in Argentina Destroying the Environment? Forbes, 30 May.Google Scholar
Reardon-Anderson, James. 1997. Pollution, Politics, and Foreign Investment in Taiwan: The Lukang Rebellion New York: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Reuters, . 2018. China Coal Imports Highest Since 2014—Customs.Google Scholar
Sachs, Jeffrey. 2017. “Japan's Leadership and Inspiration in Sustainable Development.”.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Edwin A. 2016. The Atmosphere of an Ecological Civilization: A Study of Ideology, Perception, and Action in Chengdu. China. Ph.D. dissertation, Chinese University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Judith. 2001. Mao's War Against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smil, Václav. 1993. China's Environmental Crisis. An Inquiry into the Limits of National Development. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Songster, E. Elena. 2018. Panda Nation: The Construction and Conservation of China's Modern Icon, New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sönnichsen, N. 2020. Primary Energy Consumption in China in 2018 and 2019, by Fuel Type. Statista, Nov. 3. h Accessed January 2021.Google Scholar
State Forestry and Grassland Office (People's Republic of China). 2019. Zhongguo senlin fugai lü 22.96% 中国森林覆盖率22.96% (China's forest cover 22.96%). www.forestry.gov.cn/main/65/20190620/103419043834596.html. Accessed January 2021.Google Scholar
Statistics Times. 2020. Projected GDP ranking.Google Scholar
Suh, Chung-Sok, and Kwon, Seung-Ho. 2014. Withere the Developmental State in South Korea? Balancing Welfare and Neoliberalism. Asian Studies Review 38 (4): 676692.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takeuchi, K., Brown, R.D., Washitani, I., Tsunekawa, A., eds, M. Yokohari. Satoyama: The Traditional Rural Landscapes of Japan (Springer, 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tam, Vivian W.Y. 2009. Comparing the Implementation of Concrete Recycling in the Australian and Japanese Construction Industries. Journal of Cleaner Production 17, 7: 688702.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terao, Tadayoshi, and Kenji Otsuka, eds. 2007. Development of Environmental Policy in Japan and Asian Countries New York: Palgrave Macmillan and IDE-JETRO.Google Scholar
Teets, Jessica. 2014. Civil Society Under Authoritarianism: The China Model. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teets, Jessica. 2018. The Power of Policy Networks in Authoritarian Regimes: Changing Environmental Policy in China. Governance 31, 1: 125131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Nature Conservancy. n.d. The Land Trust Reserve: A New Model of Nature Conservation in China.Google Scholar
Thomas, Asha E. 2013. Impact of Tourism on Environment: Responding to Global Challenges. Pauline Journal of Research and Studies. 1, 1: 169182.Google Scholar
Toyota. 2018. Toyota sells 1.52 million electrified vehicles in 2017, three years ahead of 2020 target.Google Scholar
Tu, Wei-Ming. 1989. Centrality and Commonality: An Essay on Confucian Religiousness Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Tyers, Roger. 2017. It's Time to Wake Up to the Devastating Impact Flying Has on the Environment. The Conversation.Google Scholar
Tyson, Elizabeth, and Logan, Kate. 2016. Tracking China's “Filthy Rivers” with Citizen Science. New Security Beat.Google Scholar
UN Environment Programme. 1972. Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment.Google Scholar
UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. n.d. A Paradigm Shift for Economic Growth: Republic of Korea's National Strategy for Green Growth and Five-Year Plan.Google Scholar
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 1998. Final Report on 1998 Floods in the People's Republic of China.Google Scholar
Upham, Frank K. 2009. Law and Social Change in Postwar Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wakamatsu, Shinji, Morikawa, Tazuko, and Ito, Akiyoshi. Air Pollution Trends in Japan between 1970 and 2012 and Impact of Urban Air Pollution Countermeasures. Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment 7 (4): 177190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weller, Robert P. 1999. Alternate Civilities: Democracy and Culture in China and Taiwan. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Weller, Robert P. 2006. Discovering Nature: Globalization and Environmental Culture in China and Taiwan., Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitney, J. B. R. 1973. Ecology and Environmental Control. In Oksenberg, Michel, ed., China's Developmental Experience. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
WHO (World Health Organization) 2018. Global Health Observatory (GHO) Data: Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution.Google Scholar
Wilkening, Kenneth E. 2004. Acid Rain Science and Politics in Japan. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank. n.d. GDP.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2019a. International Tourism, Number of Arrivals.Google Scholar
World Bank, 2019b. Air Transport, Passengers Carried.Google Scholar
World Nuclear Association. 2019. Nuclear Power in Japan (Updated February 2019).Google Scholar
World Nuclear News. 2017. Korea's Nuclear Phase-out Policy Takes Shape.Google Scholar
World Steel Association. 2018. World Steel in Figures 2018.Google Scholar
World Steel Association. 2019. World Crude Steel Production – Summary, 25 January 2019.Google Scholar
Workman, Daniel. 2019. Car Exports by Country. WTEX (World's Top Exports).Google Scholar
Xie, Zhenhua. 2020. China's historical evolution of environmental protection along with the forty years' reform and opening-up. Environmental Science and Ecotechnology. January 2020.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dingfei, Yan. 2014. Shifang Deadlock is a “National Problem” for China. China Dialogue, November 10. Accessed January 2021. [Originally published in 南方周末Southern Weekend].Google Scholar
Yoshida, Fumikazu, Hata, Akio, and Tonegawa, Haruo. 1999. Itai-itai disease and the countermeasures against cadmium pollution by the Kamioka Mine. Environmental Economics and Policy Studies 1999 (2): 215229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar