It was predicted that membership to the WTO in 2001 would bring China not only economic and political benefits, but significant environmental rewards. This article assesses how these environmental projections have panned out: it analyses the theoretical literature and China's pre-WTO historical context, then reviews China's recent industrial and agricultural development trajectories. On balance, factors related to China's WTO membership have been directly responsible for increasing environmental harms, both within China and abroad; moreover, intensifying socio-economic changes brought about by WTO membership have indirectly compounded these environmental problems. WTO accession has thus exacerbated China's already profound environmental challenges, posing a political dilemma that is difficult to resolve.