Nanjing Tree Fight Refreshingly Free of ‘Stability’

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Nanjing Tree Fight Refreshingly Free of ‘Stability’ - China Real Time Report - WSJ

Russell Leigh Moses

It’s rare in China to see a showdown between the government and the governed in which the ruling powers are forced to yield to public dismay and change course.

But that’s exactly what we saw this week. The battle wasn’t about democracy — it was about trees.

Here’s what happened. The former Republican-era capital of Nanjing has embarked on a massive expansion of its subway system; from 2 lines to perhaps 20 or more in as many years. Making urban China modern entails building major transportation networks no matter what the cost. A dozen or so Chinese cities already have subway systems; nearly twenty more have plans. These projects are attempts by municipalities to deal with the growing gridlock on China’s streets produced by cars and urban sprawl. They are also paths for political promotion of cadres yearning for elevation to Beijing.

Nanjing is no exception. And it’s difficult for anyone in China—high or low–to argue against urban development.

But matters got complicated. To make way for at least two of the subway lines, the Nanjing authorities decided that they needed to remove over a thousand trees, many of them wutong trees, whose distinctive shape and foliage provide shade and respite from Nanjing’s famous furnace heat. Visitors to Nanjing always notice how special these trees are, and residents of the city are justifiably proud of the distinction that the wutong trees bring to their city.

Many residents tied green ribbons around the trees to signal their support for efforts to save them (report in Chinese). They were irked by the lack of notice given by the government to remove the trees despite assurances that some would be transplanted elsewhere. Many knew from online forums and even the local media in Nanjing that an earlier effort at to transplant trees years before had led to many of them dying. Public dismay and distrust grew, and many called for demonstrations on the weekend to persuade the local government to back off.

Nanjing authorities would have surely preferred the issue to remain local. Vice Mayor Lu Bing went so far as to invite journalists for a press conference, explaining the government’s case, thanking the public for its concern, and even hinting that the removal procedures were under review (report in Chinese). Nanjing officials must have believed that pressure from below would dissipate before Beijing became anxious and intervened.

But the national media was already starting to cover the controversy, noting both the local government’s line and that there was public restlessness. While some media urged Nanjing to find a balance between construction and protection (report in Chinese), one of the central Party newspapers noted (Chinese) that while removing trees was not new in Nanjing, neither was civic dissatisfaction with those policies every time it was done. Astonishingly, a leading Kuomintang legislator in Taiwan weighed in, protesting that the Nanjing city government was smearing the legacy of Sun Yat-sen through their actions—and his comments were carried in the popular nationalist newspaper in China, Global Times (Chinese).

By Thursday evening, it was clear that the local authorities had lost the high-ground, and a truce was called. Both the Nanjing Party secretary and the mayor appeared publicly to assure that the removal of the trees would be halted pending further study and more public input (report in Chinese).

Nanjing officials presented this decision as a triumph of listening to the public. Some netizens praised (Chinese) the response of the government.

So what does this all mean?

These events showed yet again that much remains missing in Chinese policy-making. The lack of transparency, the absence of meaningful public hearings before decisions are made or initiatives get underway, the dearth of accountability to the public where official conduct is concerned—these are all much more important at the present stage of China’s political development than democracy.

Nanjing residents were not eager to subvert the government or to take command; but they did want to save officials from making what they saw as a monumentally stupid decision.

One positive sign in Nanjing in the past days was that when calls for public protest began in the blogosphere not a single official talked about the need for social stability. Some in government circles have acknowledged for months that the emphasis on stability at all costs has gotten far too costly; that cadres have become tone-deaf to local concerns. Reformers have lost some recent struggles to the truncheon-swingers but this one was a win.

Better politics in China starts with better policy. Nanjing shows what some cadres have already been saying: That having residents involved in local decisions earlier remains an attractive alternative to keeping the public out. Perhaps those waiting to take over the Party leadership next year were taking notes.

WSJ's China Realtime Reports and Russell Leigh Moses in particular is one of the better English sources about China, they at least are making an effort to report and comment on news that Chinese care about instead of what Westerners think Chinese should care about (which is sadly the case with most foreign news outlet in China)

Anyway I was shocked when I read the news about Nanjing's plan to do away with those trees for the sake of a few subway lines. How can a monumentally stupid decision like this got made in this day and age?

One of the reasons I think is China's policy of not allowing people to govern their hometown. This policy of course has a very long history from imperial China to prevent governors from turning cities to their own little kingdom, but during the imperial times the government is far smaller than now, so less chance to mess up.

In this day of spontaneous communications this concern of local warlordism is pretty outdated. During the Press Conference a few days ago at the end of this year's NPC session, Wen said since democratic elections at village level were successful they should be pushed to county and township level. Of course there's no chance for elections in a major city like Nanjing but it's the time to allow local government to be run by official from the area instead of someone from other provinces or cities that don't really have any attachment to the city they govern.

Nanjing's party chief is a guy from Dongbei who first served as the leader of Beijing's Haidian district. He was appointed to Nanjing two or three years ago. The Nanjing mayor is from the Jiangsu province, but he worked in other cities in the province until he was appointed Nanjing mayor a few years ago. It's unthinkable the decision about those Wutong trees would be made if Nanjing is governed by one of her natives (appointed by Beijing or not).

At least now they've halted removal of those trees, but it does look rather bad when the first politician to come out publicly supporting Nanjingers efforts to save those trees was a legislator from Taiwan.

CCP could take relief in the fact more people care for trees than for democracy, for as far as I know nobody showed up in Nanjing when overseas Chinese pro-democracy activists called for a Jasmine revolution. Lessons for those activists as well - Chinese people will fight for things they care about, they will not be cannon fodder for your cause while you rest comfortably in your New York headquarters funded by U.S. grants. Popular movement in China can't be planted by those U.S-based activists, many of them may not even be Chinese citizen.

Wutong 1, Jasmine 0.

 

[below_freezing]

So what will happen for the subways?!

by removing a few thousand trees in Nanjing you can save millions of trees elsewhere through reduced pollution!

 

[CardSharp]

In this day of spontaneous communications this concern of local warlordism is pretty outdated. During the Press Conference a few days ago at the end of this year's NPC session, Wen said since democratic elections at village level were successful they should be pushed to county and township level. Of course there's no chance for elections in a major city like Nanjing but it's the time to allow local government to be run by official from the area instead of someone from other provinces or cities that don't really have any attachment to the city they govern.

A hybrid government? Interesting idea...