Toxic Politics China's Environmental Health Crisis and its Challenge to the Chinese State

Environmental degradation in China has not only brought a wider range of diseases and other health consequences than previously understood, it has also taken a heavy toll on Chinese society, the economy, and the legitimacy of the party-state. In Toxic Politics, Yanzhong Huang presents new evidence of China's deepening health crisis and challenges the widespread view that China is winning the war on pollution. Although government leaders are learning, stricter and more centralized policy enforcement measures have not been able to substantially reduce pollution or improve public health. Huang connects this failure to pathologies inherent in the institutional structure of the Chinese party-state, which embeds conflicting incentives for officials and limits the capacity of the state to deliver public goods. Toxic Politics reveals a political system that is remarkably resilient but fundamentally flawed. Huang examines the implications for China's future, both domestically and internationally.

Part I: 1. Health effects of environmental degradation; 2. Economic, sociopolitical and foreign policy impacts; Part II: 3. Evolving environmental health policy; 4. Implementing environmental health policy; 5. An assessment of policy effectiveness; Notes; Index.

Yanzhong Huang is a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a professor at Seton Hall University's School of Diplomacy and International Relations, where he developed the first academic concentration among US schools of international affairs to explicitly address the security and foreign policy aspects of global health issues. His writing has appeared in outlets including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the New York Times, and the International Herald Tribune.