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THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY: THREATENING GLOBAL PEACE AND

SECURITY

China’s Environmental Abuses

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CHI N A'S EN VI R ON M EN TAL AB US ES

Increasing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Mismanaging Plastic Waste

A Risk to the Ozone Layer Not-So-Green Belt and Road

Threatening Air Quality Polluting the Ocean

World’s Worst Mercury Polluter Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated

Fishing Worldwide
Illegal Wildlife Trafficking
Unilateral Mekong Water
Manipulation
Driving Illegal Logging and Trade

Addressing China’s Environmental Destruction

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases; the
largest source of marine debris; the worst perpetrators of illegal, unreported, and unregulated
(IUU) fishing; and the world’s largest consumer of trafficked wildlife and timber products. While
the Chinese people have suffered the worst environmental impacts of its actions, Beijing also
threatens the global economy and global health by unsustainably exploiting natural resources
and exporting its willful disregard for the environment through its One Belt One Road initiative.
Tragically, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) represses civil society and a free press, slowing
changes that would benefit its citizens and people all over the world.

WA T C H

VI DE O | ADDR E S S I NG C HI NA’S E NVI R ONME NT AL DE S T R UC T I ON | S E PT E MBE R 29, 2020

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China dumps millions and millions of tons of plastic and trash

into the oceans, overfishes other countries’ waters, destroys vast
swaths of coral reef, and emits more toxic mercury into the
atmosphere than any country anywhere in the world.
DONALD J. TRUMP
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Increasing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Despite claims of international
environmental leadership, China’s
energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions are rising. It has been the
world’s largest annual greenhouse gas
(GHG) emitter since 2006. China’s total
energy-related emissions are twice that
of the United States and nearly one third
of all emissions globally. Beijing’s
energy-related emissions increased
more than 80 percent between 2005-2019 , while U.S. energy-related emissions have
decreased by more than 15 percent. In 2019 alone, China’s energy-related CO2 emissions
increased more than 3 percent, while the United States’ decreased by 2 percent. Beijing claims
“developing-country” status to avoid shouldering more responsibility for reducing GHG
emissions–though its per capita CO2 emissions have already reached the level of many high-
income countries. China’s increasing emissions counteract the progress of many other
countries around the world to reduce global emissions.

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REMARKS

U.S. National Statement at UNFCCC COP25

BUR E AU OF OC E ANS AND I NT E R NAT I ONAL E NVI R ONME NT AL AND
S C I E NT I FI C AFFAI R S (OE S ) | DE C E MBE R 11, 2019

PRESS STATEMENT

On the U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris

Agreement
MI C HAE L R . POMPE O| NOVE MBE R 4, 2019

A Risk to the Ozone Layer

Through the Montreal Protocol, the nations of the world agreed to phase out production of
substances that damage the ozone layer. But scientists identified an increase of emissions of
the phased-out, ozone-depleting substance
CFC-11 from Eastern China from 2014 to
2017. The United States leads the
international response and continues to
push China to live up to its obligations and
increase its monitoring and enforcement
efforts.

Too much of the Chinese Communist Party’s economy is built

on willful disregard for air, land, and water quality. The Chinese
people–and the world–deserve better.
MICHAEL R. POMPEO
SECRETARY OF STATE

Threatening Air Quality

In 2008, U.S. diplomats installed air quality monitors on top of U.S. Embassy Beijing. The United
States shared the data publicly and revealed what local residents already knew: Beijing’s
air quality was dangerously worse than the Chinese government was willing to admit. That
small act of transparency helped catalyze a revolution in air quality management, and Beijing
has since made air quality a priority, including establishing new ambient air quality standards.
Despite significant improvements in large cities, the overall level of air pollution in China
remains unhealthy, and air pollution from China continues to affect downwind countries.

The Department of State works to mitigate the global threat of air pollution through diplomacy,
policy leadership, and targeted foreign assistance to advance U.S. objectives and incorporate
innovative technologies into diplomatic and development programs while shaping markets to
support U.S. exports. The United States will continue to advance U.S. interests globally through
existing international agreements on air quality, including the Convention on Long Range
Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) and shape efforts on air quality in the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP). Further, the United States will expand our work to build capacity to
improve air quality management and shape markets for U.S. technology through the Air Quality
Program, which currently manages twelve large air quality grants with a combined budget of
$6.6 million.

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AIRNOW | AIR QUAL ITY MONITORING DATA

Greening Diplomacy Initiative’s Air Quality

Monitoring Program
U.S . E MBAS S I E S AND C ONS UL AT E S
 World’s Worst Mercury Polluter
China’s unsafe industrial processes also make it the world’s greatest emitter of mercury, a
neurotoxin, and a major public health threat when allowed to pollute the air, water, and soil.
China leads the world in mercury air pollution from its own dirty coal-burning power plants, as
well as the plants that Chinese state-owned companies finance, build, and operate in other
countries. The United States was the first country to join the 2013 Minamata Convention on
Mercury, an international agreement that seeks to protect human health and the environment
by comprehensively addressing mercury sources, trade, its use in products, emissions, storage,
and waste. In addition, the U.S. Department of State’s Mercury Program funds projects to
promote better environmental practices among artisanal and small-scale gold miners (ASGM),
reducing the use of mercury used while maintaining or increasing the miners’ recovery of gold.
The program also funds projects to reduce mercury emissions from coal combustion. PRC is
also Party to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, yet it continues to enable its citizens to
promote mercury use in ASGM in many developing countries.

Illegal Wildlife Trafficking

China is indisputably the world’s largest consumer of legal and illegal wildlife, and it was
identified as a Focus Country under the Eliminate, Neutralize, and Disrupt (END) Wildlife
Trafficking Act. Wildlife trafficking is a serious transnational crime that threatens security, fuels
corruption, robs communities of legitimate economic livelihoods, pushes species to the brink of
extinction, and spreads disease. The United States has long called for the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) to improve its behavior on combating wildlife trafficking and has secured diplomatic
successes such as a near-complete ban on Chinese government-sanctioned ivory trade in
2017. The United States calls upon the CCP to permanently end sales of high-risk wildlife in wet
markets, a move that would reduce the use of trafficked wildlife and wildlife products.
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PRESS STATEMENT

Call To Close Wildlife Wet Markets on the 50th

Anniversary of Earth Day
MI C HAE L R . POMPE O | APR I L 22, 2019

REPORT

2019 END Wildlife Trafficking Report

OE S | NOVE MBE R 7, 2019

Driving Illegal Logging and Trade

China is the world’s largest consumer of illegal
timber products. It drives illegal logging in
producer countries, feeds associated trade in
illegally harvested products worth $52-157
billion per year, and fuels corruption and
transnational organized crime. In addition,
Chinese investment in foreign infrastructure
and natural resource sectors use unfair
economic practices, disregard environmental and social safeguards, and target countries with
weak oversight and enforcement institutions that make them susceptible to predatory Chinese
extraction. These irresponsible development practices contribute to deforestation and land
degradation and undercut the legitimate forest industry around the globe. China should follow
the lead of the United States and others and implement a comprehensive ban on illegal timber
imports.

Mismanaging Plastic Waste

China is the biggest producer and exporter of plastic products, accounting for nearly 30 percent
of the world’s total. A 2019 comprehensive literature review by Tianjin University estimates
China is the world’s leading generator of plastic waste. At least 13 percent of China’s domestic
plastic waste is unmanaged and released or dumped directly into the environment as pollution,
translating into millions of tons per year. While the CCP previously supported global plastic
recycling, the “National Sword” policy (which took effect in 2018) severely restricted the import
of recyclable plastic scrap and disrupted the global plastic scrap trade. Now, most plastic scrap,
which China had imported before 2018, is landfilled, incinerated, or processed by developing
countries ill-suited to manage the sudden increase, ultimately further straining ecosystems.
The United States supports environmentally sound management of all waste and scrap and
promotes sustainable materials management (SMM), a systematic approach to using and
reusing materials more productively over their entire life cycles.

Not-So-Green Belt and Road

China’s signature One Belt One Road Initiative
(OBOR), more commonly known as the Belt and
Road Initiative (BRI), aspires to create a network
of enhanced overland and maritime trade
routes to better link China with the world.
However, implementation of BRI lacks clear
environmental guidelines, safety standards, and
worker protections. Many BRI-funded projects
do not meet international standards, leaving
countries to deal with the harmful consequences long after a project is completed.
Environmental safeguards depend on the laws of host countries, and Beijing is leading nations
away from developing their economies sustainably. In recent years, Chinese-backed projects
on several continents have displaced local populations, negatively affected water quality,
polluted adjacent land, and spoiled fragile ecosystems. Many planned Chinese infrastructure
projects worldwide would do similar harm. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has found BRI
corridors overlap with over 1,700 critical biodiversity sites and the ranges of 265 threatened
species that could be adversely affected by BRI projects. A study published in Nature
Sustainability suggested BRI projects may lead to “permanent environmental degradation” due
to environmental harm through pollution, habitat loss, and wildlife mortality, among others.
 Polluting the Ocean
China is the top source of marine plastic debris. According to its own experts, China released
up to one million tons of plastic waste into the ocean in 2017. The presence of plastics in the
ocean costs the maritime, fishing, and tourism industries billions of dollars every year and
threatens food security and public health. According to a 2020 Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum report, the damage from marine debris to APEC member economies
was estimated at over $11 billion in 2015 alone.

The United States proactively prevents and reduces marine debris domestically and supports
such efforts internationally. The United States advocates for environmentally sound
management of all waste, promotes recycling for plastic scrap, and supports innovative,
market-based solutions to manage, reduce, and ultimately prevent waste and debris—including
plastic waste—from polluting the environment. At Our Ocean Conferences from 2014 to 2019,
the United States made 113 commitments valued at over $4.3 billion to promote sustainable
fisheries, combat marine debris, and support marine science, observation, and exploration. At
last year’s Our Ocean Conference, the United States announced 23 new commitments valued at
$1.21 billion, including three new commitments related to marine debris.

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 REMARKS

Addressing Senate Subcommittee on the Issue of

Marine Debris
OE S | J UL Y 21, 2020

MEDIA NOTE

Reaffirming U.S. Commitments to Protecting

Marine Ecosystems
OFFI C E OF T HE S POK E S PE R S ON | J UL Y 16, 2020

FACT SHEET

Commitments Announced at Our Ocean 2019

Conference
OE S | OC T OBE R 24, 2019

REPORT

Update of 2009 APEC Report on Economic

Costs of Marine Debris to APEC Economies
AS I A-PAC I FI C E C ONOMI C C OOPE R AT I ON | NOVE MBE R 7, 2019
 Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Worldwide
China is placing increased pressure on global fish stocks through unsustainable fishing
practices. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) subsidizes the world’s largest fishing fleet,
including one of the largest distant-water fishing fleets operating on the high seas and in other
countries’ waters. Chinese vessels routinely violate the sovereign rights and jurisdiction of
other coastal States, fish without permission, and overfish licensing agreements. Despite
Beijing’s claiming a “zero-tolerance” policy when it comes to these issues, the problems are
widespread. China is one of the world’s worst perpetrators of illegal, unreported, and
unregulated fishing (IUU), disregarding fisheries management measures. In response, the
United States is developing new tools and working with international partners to ensure global
fishing is legal and sustainable, while encouraging the CCP to more effectively and transparently
police the activities of its fleets and hold violators accountable.

WA T C H

VI DE O | C HI NA’S OVE R FI S HI NG AND POL L UT I ON HAR M T HE WOR L D’S OC E ANS | OC T OBE R 15, 2020
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PRESS STATEMENT

On China’s Predatory Fishing Practices in the

Galápagos
MI C HAE L R . POMPE O | AUG US T 2, 2020

ARTICLE

Chinese Fishing Fleet Threatens Galápagos

Islands’ Wildlife
S HAR E AME R I C A | AUG US T 3, 2020
 SPECIAL BRIEFING

On China’s Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated

Fishing
OE S & BUR E A OF WE S T E R N HE MI S PHE R E AFFAI R S | OC T OBE R 9,
2020

Unilateral Mekong Water Manipulation

China’s operation of its cascade of mega dams, opaque water management practices, and
unilateral alteration of water flow in the upstream portion of the Mekong River have resulted in
catastrophic consequences for its downstream neighbors. In December 2019 at the Mekong
Research Symposium, researchers presented troubling evidence regarding China’s
manipulation of the Mekong River’s flows for the past 25 years. Further analyses of publicly
available satellite data and Mekong River Commission river height record confirmed that the
greatest disruption in natural flows coincided with major dam construction and operation,
exacerbated drought conditions, and contributed to immeasurable damage to fishing and
agriculture. These problems are compounded by the PRC’s failure to share critical water flow
data, without which Mekong region nations cannot effectively manage water resources or
prepare for and mitigate the impacts of floods and droughts. The United States urges China to
deliver on its recent commitment to share year-round water data and work in concert with the
Mekong River Commission (MRC) to capitalize on existing partnerships and platforms for data
sharing, including the MRC’s Data and Information Sharing Platform and the Mekong Water
Data Initiative (MWDI).

WA T C H
 VI DE O | ANNOUNC I NG T HE ME K ONG -U.S . PAR T NE R S HI P | S E PT E MBE R 22, 2020

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MEDIA NOTE
Joint Statement on the Eleventh Ministerial
Meeting of the Lower Mekong Initiative
OFFI C E OF T HE S POK E S PE R S ON | AUG US T 4, 2018

REPORT

How China Turned

Off the Tap on the
Mekong River
T HE S T I MS ON C E NT E R | APR I L
13, 2020

WEBSITE

Mekong-U.S. Partnership
MUL T I NAT I ONAL PAR T NE R S HI P

WEBSITE

Mekong Water Data Initiative (MWDI)

S US T AI NABL E I NFR AS T R UC T UR E PAR T NE R S HI P
For further information and resources, visit the website of the Bureau of Oceans and
International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES). For press inquiries, contact OES-
PA-DG@state.gov.

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China’s Military Aggression in the Indo-Pacific Region

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China’s Coercive Tactics Abroad

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China’s Disregard for Human Rights

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5G Security

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Military-Civil Fusion in the People's Republic China

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The Chinese Communist Party’s Human Rights Abuses in Xinjiang

REA D MORE
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