of four million Renminbi to build a drinking water reservoir. Green Anhui achieved success by helping ‘farmers collect evidence, gain media coverage, and drive the three chemical factories away from their village’ (Liu, 2010), this removal of the three polluters that occupied this village meant that the sources of the water and air pollution that had been causing cancer were gone. It is important that the Chinese government are willing to cooperate with civil society, there have been reports of harassment, assault and prosecutions to activists who were looking to get credible evidence. These grassroot movements have has particular success, Chongqing Environmental Protection Bureau put a halt to chemical factories in one district in order to inspect them, only three of them were allowed to reopen. Although the Chinese government has often dismissed and supressed activists and media, they have reportedly allowed more citizen involvement in environmental protection. NGO’s have a been successful in educating, holding campaigns and conservation projects, there has been less success in influencing government decisions. It is necessary that international and national NGO’s work together.
Applying The Environmental Kuznets Curve.
China employs the ‘grow first and clean up later’, the environment suffers as a result of rapid industrialisation and increasing GDP. In short, the Environmental Kuznets curve (ECK) posits that as economic growth occurs in the initial stage of industrialisation, environmental degradation occurs, thereafter once per capita income has reached a certain threshold, people can then afford to demand a better environment. These cancer villages provide empirical evidence of how these early stages of economic development can cause damages of such magnitude that they are irreversible. It is unlikely to see the level of pollution in these villages decrease, meaning that in the long-term, China must address the need for health care and treatment, incurring huge costs. Problems with the ECK is that the emissions turning point may be too high, as already discussed the level of pollution will be irreversible.

National Policy.
The European Union regulation, Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) when in practise aims to protect humans and the environment from the use of chemicals, to hold polluters accountable for the placement of chemicals on the market. Countries who are not members in the EU have started to implement regulations of REACH or currently adopting a framework similar to that of REACH. China is tak