EAST ASIA

7 domains mapped · Code: CN

These are jurisdiction-specific research-progress records. They expose first moves, likely actors, and institutional infrastructure where mapped; they are not a claim that every country has a finished statutory memo for all 61 domains.

Canonical domain beta-W from Coal Combustion. Local route severity is a country-route triage value and is not used in the aggregate portfolio.

PRIMARY ROUTE:China operates ~1,100 GW of coal capacity — more than the rest of the world combined. However, China also deploys more renewable energy annually than any other country. When renewable deployment makes new coal uneconomic, the overlapping interest in coal expansion weakens.

4 actor-lane actions mapped

Canonical domain beta-W from Mining & Rare Earth Extraction. Local route severity is a country-route triage value and is not used in the aggregate portfolio.

PRIMARY ROUTE:China refines roughly 85-90% of the world's rare earths, and the legacy processing belts in Jiangxi and Inner Mongolia left radioactive thorium tailings and acid leachate that poisoned groundwater and farmland around sites like Baotou's tailings pond. Because the processing is concentrated in a few state-linked firms, Beijing could mandate closed-loop chemistry and tailings remediation faster than a fragmented industry could.

4 actor-lane actions mapped

Canonical domain beta-W from Electronic Waste Export and Toxic Dumping. Local route severity is a country-route triage value and is not used in the aggregate portfolio.

PRIMARY ROUTE:Guiyu in Guangdong was for years a large electronic-waste dismantling site, where acid baths and open burning to recover gold and copper left children with elevated blood-lead levels and contaminated the local rivers. China's 2018 ban on importing foreign solid waste already proved the inflow can be shut, so the remaining task is formalizing the domestic dismantling that continues.

4 actor-lane actions mapped

Canonical domain beta-W from Cement (Calcination Floor). Local route severity is a country-route triage value and is not used in the aggregate portfolio.

PRIMARY ROUTE:China produces roughly half the world's cement, and the clinker process makes the industry one of the country's largest single sources of carbon dioxide plus particulate haze across the North China Plain. Because the sector is already inside the national emissions-trading scheme expansion and dominated by large firms like CNBM, Beijing can cap clinker emissions through existing levers.

4 actor-lane actions mapped

Canonical domain beta-W from Plastics and Petrochemical Waste. Local route severity is a country-route triage value and is not used in the aggregate portfolio.

PRIMARY ROUTE:China is a large plastics producer and was historically the single largest source of mismanaged plastic waste reaching the ocean, much of it via the Yangtze and Pearl River systems. The country has already begun phasing out single-use bags and non-degradable straws nationally, which shows the policy lever works and can be widened to packaging and fishing gear.

4 actor-lane actions mapped

Canonical domain beta-W from Factory Farming and Industrial Animal Agriculture. Local route severity is a country-route triage value and is not used in the aggregate portfolio.

PRIMARY ROUTE:China raises roughly half the world's pigs, and the shift to mega-farms (including multi-story hog towers) concentrated antibiotic use, manure-driven nitrogen pollution, and the African swine fever risk that wiped out a large share of the national herd in 2018-2019. Because the Ministry of Agriculture already runs a veterinary-antibiotic reduction program and manure-recycling mandates, the welfare losses can be curbed through existing rules.

4 actor-lane actions mapped

Canonical domain beta-W from Big Tech Platform Monopoly. Local route severity is a country-route triage value and is not used in the aggregate portfolio.

PRIMARY ROUTE:China's platform giants (Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, Meituan) hold detailed behavioral and payment data on nearly the entire population, and their algorithmic targeting drove minors' screen addiction and gig-worker overwork before regulators stepped in. The State Administration for Market Regulation already fined Alibaba for monopoly conduct and the Personal Information Protection Law gives a concrete enforcement lever.

4 actor-lane actions mapped

© 2026 Erik Postnieks · Independent Researcher · Salt Lake City