How to pronounce "marble"

as you do in the UK.

We said this was only going to work for the Chinese environmental groups

if, when they won a case,

they had all of their costs paid by the polluters,

but when they lost, they would not have to pay any of the polluters’ costs.

Because, win or lose,

they were asserting the interests of the public at large.

Three months after that, I found myself back in a meeting in Beijing;

this time, in the Supreme Court building just off Tiananmen Square.

I was there with the head of the EU-China Environment Programme.

We were sitting at a white marble table that seemed to be 40 feet long.

Across from us were three Supreme Court judges.

A senior judge began the meeting

by saying that they had accepted almost all of our recommendations,

including the key recommendation on costs.

So at one stroke,

the Chinese system became friendlier to citizen environmental groups

trying to enforce the law

than many countries.

The senior judge then said, "What do you want to do next for China?"

Now on my prior trip,