Political agenda setting
Public policies consist of a group of activities and decisions taken by different actors with a view to resolving a problem that is politically defined as public in nature, it is important first and foremost to look into the actual concept of “public problem”
Political agenda setting is the processes whereby a social problem is identified and then “thematicised” as a public problem as well as different characteristics of agenda setting. According to the analytical model proposed in Public Policy Analysis, the political definition of the public problem (PD) constitutes, in effect, the first product that should be studied when tackling the cycle of public intervention.
As far as China's policy in importing solid waste is concerned, at the stage of political agenda setting, the model of media coverage shall be testified.
The model of media coverage
The media, whether domestic and overseas, have played an indispensable role in highlighting the problems caused by imported solid waste and promoting the agenda setting of the policy of importing solid waste. In The Prevention Plan of Environmental Pollution Caused by Solid Waste of Guangdong Province (2001-2010) issued by The Guangdong Provincial Government, it is said, "the news coverage of the accidents of air and water pollutions caused by solid waste in the city of Dali, Qingyuan, and Guiyu has stimulated the National Committee and provincial government to take measures against such kind of pollution."82 This official document has confirmed the role of media in urging the public authorities to take the relevant measures against the problems caused by imported solid waste..
Besides, the foreign media has also done its own bit to the evolution of China's policy of importing solid waste. In 2004, the UK's tremendous export of hazardous waste to China disclosed by the Guardian had stirred a big debate concerning the import of solid waste from developed countries, which contributed to the revision of The Law of Prevention against Environmental Pollution Caused by Solid Waste (2005).83
The political definition of the public problem
By referring to The Interpretation of The Law of the People's Republic of China on Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste issued by The Committee of Environment of The People's Congress,84 the political definition of the public problem can be concluded as follows,
The hazardous solid waste, including trash waste, medical waste, and electronic waste containing virus, chemicals, radioactive elements and heavy metals brought by foreign suppliers, carriers, domestic consignees will lead to serious water, air and soil pollutions, posing big threats to the public health. Besides, the enterprises using solid waste without installing adequate facilities or employing suitable technologies not only cause the problem of secondary environmental pollution and the problem of wasting resources, but also put the enterprises equipped with adequate technologies and facilities for dealing with pollution at a disadvantage position in terms of production cost, thus disrupting the healthy development of China's recycling industry.
Table VI: The problems to be tackled by China's policy of import of solid waste
Problems |
Environmental problem Public health problem Resource wasting problem |
Sub-problems |
Unhealthy development of domestic recycling industry problem |
Through the above political definition, the environmental groups, which representing the environment; the residents living around the sites of recycling and disposing solid waste as well as the enterprises using solid waste in an environmentally friendly way are designated as the beneficiary groups.
Besides, regulating the imported solid waste is also beneficial to the development of domestic collecting industry. As the present situation is that the domestic enterprises choose to import solid waste from overseas instead of using domestically collected solid waste, the domestic collecting industry is hampered. When the source of solid waste from overseas is restricted, the enterprises will have to resort to the domestic collecting industry to meet their demands, which will put an incentive on the investment in this industry.85 Therefore, the domestic collecting industry will be considered as the positively-affected third party (PATP).
The Causal hypothesis
The causal hypothesis of China's policy of importing solid waste designates overseas suppliers, carriers, domestic consignees, enterprises using solid waste as the target groups responsible for the public problems caused by import of solid waste. The causal hypotheses are as follows;
If political administrative actors, including departments of environmental protection administration, departments of commerce administration, departments of economic comprehensive macro-economic control, departments of customs, departments of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine , all at both national and local level, would like to prevent environmental pollution caused by imported solid waste and ensure the health of the public, they should oblige foreign suppliers, carriers, and domestic consignees not to effect any shipment of hazardous solid waste, and to only effect the shipment of the types of solid waste which can be used in an environmentally friendly way.
If political administrative actors, including departments of environmental protection administration, departments of commerce administration, departments of economic comprehensive macro-economic control, departments of customs, departments of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine , all at both national and local level, would like to prevent environmental pollution caused by imported solid waste and ensure the health of the public, they should oblige the enterprises using solid waste to be equipped with adequate technologies and facilities and to recycle and dispose imported solid waste in an environmentally friendly way.
When the enterprises using solid waste become one of the target groups, their employees are also be affected. If some small enterprises cannot change their behaviors or fail to change their behaviors, they will be shut down or they will slash the staff, which will harm the interests of their employees, especially at the local level, where enterprises using solid waste provide many employment opportunities. Besides, the enterprises using solid waste often provide products to the enterprises for further processing, which constitutes one link of the local value chain, so it also do harm to the interests of such kinds of enterprises. The example of Luqiao District of Taizhou City in Zhejiang province can be taken to demonstrate the above points. The recycling industry of solid waste at Luqiao village has started to appear since 1970s, and has formed a complete value chain of recycling imported solid waste, processing raw materials, selling, and further processing. The number of the employees working in this industry reached 50 thousands, and the number of the employees working in relevant industries is as high as 150 thousands. The average weight of annual recycling solid waste reached more than 2.1 million tons, among which the recycled copper is of 170 thousands, the recycled aluminum of 160 thousands, the recycled steel 1.5 million tones, and other kinds of stainless steel and rare metals. The local recycling industry has achieved revenues of more than 15 billion RMB, and has provided the industries of metal manufacturing in the city of Taizhou and other neighboring areas with a large amount of metal materials.86
Therefore, the employees of the enterprises using solid waste and the purchaser of the products from the enterprises using solid waste are designated as the negatively-affected third party (NATP).
The Intervention hypothesis
To compel the target group to change their behaviors, there are the following intervention hypotheses;
Intervention hypothesis 1: If the political administrative actors would like to induce foreign suppliers, carriers, and domestic consignees not to effect shipment of dangerous and useless solid waste, and to ship the types of solid waste which can be used in an environmentally friendly way, they must put some bans and restrictions on importing hazardous waste, that is, developing, adjusting and announcing The Catalogue of Solid Waste Prohibited for Import; The Catalogue of Solid Waste Restricted for Import; and The Catalogue of Solid Waste Automatically Licensed for Import.
Intervention hypothesis 2: If the political administrative actors would like to induce foreign suppliers, carriers, and domestic consignees not to effect shipment of dangerous and useless solid waste, and to ship the types of solid waste which can be used in an environmentally friendly way, they must impose obligations on overseas suppliers to obtain the registration certificate issued by department of quality supervision, inspection, and quarantine of the State Council.
Intervention hypothesis 3: If the political administrative actors would like to induce foreign suppliers, carriers, and domestic consignees not to effect shipment of dangerous and useless solid waste, and to ship the types of solid waste which can be used in an environmentally friendly way, they must impose obligations on domestic consignees to obtain the registration certificate issued by department of quality supervision, inspection, and quarantine of the State Council.
Intervention hypothesis 4: If the political administrative actors would like to induce foreign suppliers, carriers, and domestic consignees not to effect shipment of dangerous and useless solid waste, and to ship the types of solid waste which can be used in an environmentally friendly way, they must exercise inspections of customs both before the shipment and upon arrival of the shipment.
Intervention hypothesis 5: If the political administrative actors would like to induce the enterprises making use of imported waste to be equipped with adequate technologies and facilities and to recycle and dispose imported solid waste in an environmentally friendly way, they must require the enterprises using solid waste to acquire the license from the departments of environmental protection.
Intervention hypothesis 6: If the political administrative actors would like to induce the enterprises making use of imported waste to be equipped with adequate technologies and facilities and to recycle and dispose imported solid waste in environmental-friendly way, they must organize site inspection and supervisory monitoring.
From the intervention hypotheses, it can be concluded that the intervention measures of China's policy of importing solid waste are of regulatory types, that is, imposing bans, obligations and supervisions.
Figure VI: "The triangle of actors of China’s policy".
