Environmental Laws | Business Litigation | Corporate Accountability
Overview: Taking on China’s Global Polluters
When communities from Fujian to the farmlands of Guinea and Ecuador are poisoned by pollution, Jingjing Zhang is often right beside them—fighting back through the power of law. Dubbed “China’s Erin Brockovich,” Zhang has spent over two decades litigating environmental injustices and now leads the charge in training lawyers across the Global South to hold Chinese companies to account.
From Fujian to the Courtroom: A Legal Odyssey Begins
Zhang’s commitment to environmental justice took root when she saw environmental havoc firsthand—discolored water, toxic discharge, and barren fields near her family’s workplace in Sichuan. Guided by this early exposure, she joined the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV) in the late 1990s and spearheaded China’s first environmental class-action suit, winning restitution for over 1,700 villagers harmed by heavy-metal contamination in Fujian.(Inside Climate News, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre)
She didn’t stop there. Throughout China, Zhang pushed back against polluting tanneries, paper mills, and power plants—and led the campaign for Beijing’s first public hearing on pollution. Her persistence helped institutionalize environmental impact assessments, driving the suspension of numerous top-down development projects.(Inside Climate News)
Going Global: Fighting Pollution Across Borders
As China’s Belt and Road Initiative took root, Zhang recognized an alarming trend: environmentally hazardous practices were being exported alongside infrastructure investments, especially into developing nations.(Inside Climate News, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre)
Since 2015, she has visited over 20 countries—from Guinea and Zambia to Ecuador—arming local NGOs and lawyers with tools, legal expertise, and solidarity. In Guinea, Zhang assisted communities fighting bauxite mining pollution; in Ecuador, her amicus brief helped courts revoke Chinese firms’ mining permits unlawfully granted without indigenous consent.(Enviropolitics, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Dialogue Earth)
Building Legal Capacity: From Litigation to Empowerment
Zhang’s work now spans beyond representing victims. As the Director of the Transnational Environmental Accountability Project at the University of Maryland and founder of the China Accountability Project, she delivers training, legal strategy guidance, and mentorship to Global South lawyers made vulnerable by jurisdictional and resource limitations.(Oxford Cloud, World Fellows Program, The People’s Map of Global China)
Her unique positioning—as a Chinese lawyer with deep local understanding—bridges a critical gap: foreign companies often escape accountability because local advocates lack the capacity to challenge them. Through Zhang’s efforts, communities now have legal clarity and ethical backing, while Chinese firms face rising scrutiny abroad.(Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, EHN)
Why She Matters: Strengthening the Rule of Law Across Borders
- Legal Innovation in Resource-Rich Regions
Zhang’s successes demonstrate how even under-resourced jurisdictions can leverage foreign law and international norms to win environmental justice. - Accountability for Chinese Firms on a Global Scale
Her work challenges the assumption that Chinese companies are beyond reproach outside China—setting new precedents for corporate compliance and enforcement. - Empowering Civil Society
By training and co-representing with local lawyers, Zhang strengthens bottom-up rule-of-law frameworks—both in China and abroad.
Conclusion: From Local Ripples to Global Wave
Jingjing Zhang’s journey—from childhood witness of pollution to transnational environmental crusader—illuminates the remarkable impact one determined lawyer can achieve. Her blend of legal skill, moral clarity, and global solidarity offers a powerful blueprint for pursuing environmental justice in an increasingly connected—and unequal—world.
In her commitment to the planet, Zhang fights not just for communities, but for a world where powerful extractive interests can no longer escape the long arm of the law.
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