In Search of Green China

The world cannot address its pressing environmental problems without China. But can China be relied upon as a steadfast steward of nature, as its leaders have claimed in recent years?

Prominent environmental campaigner and reporter Ma Tianjie gets to the heart of China’s remarkable ecological transformation to answer this question. He takes us on a journey through the country’s thirty-year struggle to clean up its rivers, clear its air and stabilize carbon emissions, drawing out the complex political impulses that have helped and hindered progress. Anchoring his storytelling in some of China’s major environmental challenges - from Beijing’s ’airpocalypse’ to the cancer villages of the Huai River basin, he shows how the ideas and actions of few extraordinary individuals were critical in changing China from a heavily polluted country to a place where environmental issues are high on the agenda. The complex ecological tapestry Ma paints illuminates the key ideas, experiences and influences that have shaped China’s environmental consciousness and will continue to frame the search for green China well into the twenty-first century.

Ma Tianjie is a freelance writer and environmental activist based in Beijing. Formerly, he was Director of China Dialogue Beijing from 2015 to 2022, reporting on China’s environmental affairs for a global audience. He was also Greenpeace’s Program Director for Mainland China. He is a regular commentator on China’s environmental challenges contributing to a range of domestic and international media organizations, including CGTN, South China Morning Post and Foreign Policy.