University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

Several studies indicates China is experiencing a water crisis, were several regions are suffering of severe water scarcity and rivers are heavily polluted. On the other hand, water is used inefficiently and wastefully: water use efficiency in the agriculture sector is only 40% and within industry, only 40% of the industrial wastewater is recycled. However, based on statistical data, China’s total water resources is ranked sixth in the world, based on its water resources and yet, Yellow River and Hai River dries up in its estuary every year. In some regions, the water situation is exacerbated by the fact that rivers’ water is heavily polluted with a large amount of untreated wastewater, discharged into the rivers and deteriorating the water quality. Several regions’ groundwater is overexploited due to human activities demand, which is not met by local. Some provinces have over withdrawn groundwater, which has caused ground subsidence and increased soil salinity. So what is the situation in China? Is there a water crisis, and if so, what are the causes?This report is a review of several global water scarcity assessment methods and summarizes the findings of the results of China’s water resources to get a better understanding about the water situation. All of the methods indicated that water scarcity is mainly concentrated to north China due to rapid growth, overexploitation from rivers and reduced precipitation. Whereas, South China is indicated as abundant in water resources, however, parts of the region are experiencing water scarcity due to massive dam constructions for water storage and power production. Too many dam constructions in a river disrupts flow of the river water and pollutants are then accumulated within floodgates.Many Chinese officials and scholars believe that with economic growth comes improved environmental quality when the economy has reached to a certain of per-capita level. However, with the present water situation it is not sustainable or possible for China to keep consuming and polluting its water resources. Improvement of environmental quality does not come automatically with increased income, and policies, laws and regulations are needed in order to stop further deterioration of the environment.China’s water situation is not any news and the key factor is human activities, but the question is how to solve it. China’s water crisis is much more complex than over exploitation of groundwater and surface water. There are three water issues in China: “too much water – floods, too little water – droughts, and too dirty water – water pollution” (Jun & Chen, 2001). Thus, solving China’s water crisis is a huge challenge to solve without negatively affecting the economic growth.

La tesi si concentra sul Partito Nazionalista Cinese negli anni Venti come punto privilegiato di osservazione del cambiamento politico della Cina dopo la Prima guerra mondiale. Questo decennio rappresentò un momento di definizione identitaria sia per i comunisti sia per i nazionalisti. La storiografia ne ha sottolineato numerosi aspetti, ma si è finora occupata del periodo 1919-1928 come una preistoria degli anni Trenta piuttosto che come un autonomo segmento di storia cinese. Studi recenti hanno superato implicitamente questo approccio criticando due date periodizzanti fondamentali per il Novecento cinese: la nascita della Repubblica nazionalista (1911) e la nascita della Repubblica Popolare (1949). A metà tra queste due date, gli anni Venti sono emersi come snodo decisivo nel passaggio da impero a Stato nazionale, durante cui si definì un nuovo spazio di discussione politica. Questo processo, pur interno, subì l’influsso delle strategie internazionali di sovietici e statunitensi dando vita a una nuova visione non soltanto della rivoluzione ma anche dello Stato post-rivoluzionario. Le classi dirigenti nazionalista e comunista, durante la collaborazione, si rivelarono dinamiche e tale “competizione” si trasferì anche all’interno di ciascun movimento diventando un fattore determinante per il successo o il fallimento del partito inteso come moderna formazione politica. / The thesis focuses on the Chinese Nationalist Party in the 1920s as a special standpoint to analyze the political changes in China after the World War I. That decade was crucial for shaping the identity of nationalists and communists. Many works have already examined some aspects, but they mostly considered the years 1919-1928 as a pre-history of the Thirties rather than an autonomous part of Chinese history. Recent studies have overcome this approach by criticizing two of the main periodization in the Chinese twentieth century: the birth of the nationalist Republic (1911) and the birth of the People’s Republic (1949). Halfway, the 1920s stood out as a critical juncture in the transition from empire to nation-state. A new space of political discussion was defined. The process, albeit internal, was under the influence of the USSR and US international strategies and gave birth not only to a new vision of the revolution, but also to a vision of the post-revolutionary state. Also, the nationalist and communist leaderships turned out to be dynamic. That "competition" may be seen also within the two political movements and became a shaping factor for the success or failure of the party as a modern political formation.