China's Participation In The Arctic Environmental Governance

The Arctic region is experiencing the same pollution of environment as other parts of the earth,and increasing pollutants in the Arctic are largely brought about by the ocean currents and the atmospheric circulation,which exacerbates the irreversibility of the environmental pollution in the Arctic further.Besides persistent organic pollutants,the Arctic is facing other environmental problems,including heavy metal pollution,climate warming,and melting of sea ice,thawing of permafrost and ocean acidification subsequently.For all the states inside and outside the Arctic,the Arctic environmental governance has become a realistic need to maintain and promote the common interests of human beings,along with their own interests of the states.In the era of globalization,global good governance is an ideal state of global governance,which is based on the dissatisfaction with the current situation of globalization,and it is the normative claims through which the international community tries to solve global problems through global governance.Considering good governance as the ultimate goal of governance,its elements include legality,rule of law,transparency,accountability,responsiveness and effectiveness,and all the elements are closely connected with the institution/regime;that is to say,achieving good governance must rely on the institution/regime,which is also an important argumental basis of China's participation in the Arctic environmental governance from the perspective of the institution/regime.The Chinese term zhi du mainly corresponds to the English vocabulary institution/regime.In the study of realistic problems,the distinction between regime and institution-which is zhi du respectively-is not absolute,and then scholars tend to use both of them alternately.Out of the respect to the reality of that theory as well as the theme of the study of the paper,institution as zhi du is understood in the broad sense.Although there are different opinions on articulating the concept of the institution,the following consensus on the meaning of institution can be fundamentally reached-the institution is a kind of social system that constrains different behaviors,and it is an accepted behavioral pattern or practical pattern which is formed around all kinds of expectations,including a variety of norms,rules,principles,procedures,etc.The institution is very important for the Arctic environmental governance,largely because the institution aims to define the rights and obligations between the actors,reduce transaction costs,and effectively allocate resources according to Neo-institutional Economics;in addition,from the point of international relations or international politics,the institution can provide public goods and promote common interests for the actors which are represented by states,and it can also provide the opportunity and means to realize their own interests for the dominant behaviors,thus promoting the gradual evolution of institution.In the institutional system of Arctic environmental governance,the institution can be generally divided into formal institution and informal institution,both of which are parallel institutional forms in the governance of international public affairs.Above all,the environmental problems in the Arctic have become global ones,which go beyond the borders of states,nations and social system and beyond the differences of culture,religion and ideology,and the path of global governance is a pressing need to solve the problems successfully.China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council,and it is also the largest developing country in the world,and has become the world's second largest economy.So it plays an irreplaceable role in the international arena;for example,such important international affairs as the Arctic environmental governance,cannot do without the participation of China.From the perspective of institutional study,the paper analyzes the problems relating to China's participation in the Arctic environmental governance.That is principally because the traditional international institution,including the existing institution of environmental governance in the Arctic,was established under the dominance of western countries which are led by the United States and they are worthy of the designers,implementers and referees of the institution;but in modern times,China has always been an observer of the international institution,not a designer,and occasionally even fall victim to some institution.However,if China wants to more effectively take on international responsibility according to its great power and more strongly achieve its own state interests,it must participate in designing and creating the relevant institution,and further reshape the new fair and just international order.In order to find strong reasons for China's participation in the Arctic environmental governance,this paper designs a theoretical route of institutional study.Based on broadly absorbing and referring to the existing research results relating to the institution,the paper puts forward three basic theoretical presupposition:the hypothesis of Economic Man and the hypothesis of Bounded Rationality and Opportunism Tendency.The important mission of the institution is to effectively guide Bounded Rationality of Economic Man and curb his opportunism tendency,and achieve harmony and unity of individual interests and social common interests.In order to deeply analyze the internal mechanism of the institutional evolution,the paper also takes state interest,power,norms and principles,customs and habits as well as knowledge as important variables so as to explain their effects on the institutional development.It is worth noting that the institutional study of the paper follows a progressive logic:firstly fully explains the current situation of the institution of the Arctic environmental governance,and then analyzes the existing problems of the institution in depth,and explores the internal reasons from the outside to the inside,so as to find the feasible countermeasures,and finally lay a solid foundation for China's participation in the Arctic environmental governance from the perspective of institutional innovation.In addition,the institutional study of the paper has been carried out step by step from the three aspects of the globe,region and nation(China),and focused on the theme of China's participation in the Arctic environmental governance all the time.Therefore,the so-called Approach to the Institutional Study is not only confined to a chapter,but throughout the whole paper.China's participation in the Arctic environmental governance is based on the existing institutional system which includes both global institution centered on United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and regional institution represented by the Arctic Council system,as well as the national institution,mainly related to the institutional arrangement of China;in addition,such regulations as formal institution and informal institution interweave each other,forming a panorama of Arctic environmental governance system.Based upon entirely introducing the above current situation of the institutional system,the paper further explains the problems of the specific institution itself,and then analyzes the underlying problems in legality,representation and validity of Arctic environmental governance system,and referring to the former design of the variables such as interests,power and norm and the principle as well as knowledge about the institutional study,profoundly anatomizes the root which is considered as the problems of the institution relating to China's participation in the Arctic environmental governance.To resolve the dilemma of the institution relating to China's participation in the Arctic environmental governance,there are different views on the theory and practice,those arguments mainly revolve around whether to need to develop a global Arctic Treaty;Oran R.Young,as a international institution expert,not only believes that the Arctic Treaty cannot solve the current problems in the Arctic environmental governance,but also further puts forward the concept of a regime complex in order to deal with such problems as weakness,fragmentation,and so on of the current institution.Although the above arguments have certain rationality,it is difficult to achieve an effective balance between each state's own interests of and the common interests of mankind.In view of this,this paper comes up with the idea of the Community of Destiny of Mankind which has been put forward by China in the international community in recent years,as the solution to the plight of the institution of the Arctic environmental governance.After the paper sets the coordinate of the Community of Destiny of Mankind for China's participation in the Arctic environmental governance,it makes a systematic and comprehensive exposition along with the route from the perspective of institutional innovation.Firstly,the values in the scope of the institution is reconstructed;secondly,aiming at the subject identity in the scope of the institution,the paper presents the concept of the Pan-Arctic Community,so as to further clarify the identity and establish the favorable position for China's participation in the Arctic environmental governance;finally,from the angle of governance capability,the paper makes a comprehensive and deep discussion on the institutional supply relating to China's participation in the Arctic environmental governance.All in all,the paper is based on the theme of China's participation in the Arctic environmental governance around such elements as interests,power and norms,etc,and has taken a specific institutional study as a frame of reference throughout,and then progressively promote the demonstration and analysis.