Wen set up China Green Student Forum, a network of 20 universities' environment groups. Linked through the Internet, they exchange environmental information and coordinate meetings and other activities. But you have to know your limitations. Industrial pollution becomes a political problem, for example, because local governments rely on factories for their revenue. The bosses pay bribes to avoid being shut down.
Corruption is often at the root of environmental problems.
He is working closely with Mei Ng, head of Friends of the Earth in Hong Kong. Ng has spent six years acting as a bridge between Western environmental groups and counterparts in China that are seeking to lay the groundwork for an indigenous green movement. Her greatest accomplishment, though, may have been to accustom China's powerful bureaucrats to the idea of grassroots environmentalism. I had to convince them we were coming to help. Xie later gushed to his staff.