The Blueway and the Red Line Spiderweb: Assessing the Impact of Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses on Environmental Protests in China

ABSTRACT This study examines China's environmental governance through the framework of Althusser's Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses, using the 2021 Shenzhen Blueway Ecological Belt Project as a case study. Despite the formalization of public participation, the authoritarian state employs legal, bureaucratic, and ideological mechanisms to suppress dissent while preserving legitimacy. The findings reveal how control over information flows and media narratives, coupled with legal and bureaucratic constraints on NGOs, systematically undermines public engagement and reinforces top‐down governance. The Shenzhen case demonstrates the state's dual strategy of repression and ideological control, wherein environmental governance operates both as a political instrument and a means of consolidating state authority. By co‐opting NGOs, restricting transparency, and framing environmental contention as a national security threat, the state effectively neutralizes opposition and fortifies its state‐capitalist accumulation model. This study contributes to the discourse on authoritarian environmentalism, underscoring its long‐term implications for sustainability, public participation, and state‐society relations.