The Legality Trap: Legal Co-optation Under Authoritarianism.

This article examines how China’s authoritarian regime employs a discriminatory legal opportunity structure to co-opt environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in public interest litigation (PIL). While the legal system offers environmental NGOs a powerful platform to address pollution and biodiversity issues, access to this venue is tightly controlled through stringent registration requirements, political scrutiny, and financial dependencies on state or party-affiliated entities. This structure incentivizes NGOs to self-censor, moderate their advocacy tactics, and align closely with the party-state to maintain legal standing and funding, leading to fragmentation within the environmental NGO community. The study highlights the nuanced interplay between authoritarian legality and social movements, showing how legal reforms combined with political control can channel activism into less radical, state-sanctioned paths while preserving a degree of NGO autonomy.