The Dirty Secret of China's Economy

Photo Source: The Globalist

According the latest statistics from the China's top environmental agency the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), the mainland's pollution scourge costs almost 10% loss in gross domestic product of the country, which is roughly about $200 billion a year. That's why an article used the title "The Dirty Secret of China's Economy" to criticize the country's economic development.

China is a remarkable growth story. But it is also fast becoming an ecological wasteland, home to world-class smog, acid rain, polluted rivers and lakes, and deforestation. Environmental problems play a role in the death of some 300,000 Chinese people each year, according to World Bank estimates.”

- Brian Bremner, "Business Online"

It is quite true that with the China’s “Dragonomics”, it is unrealistic to expect China to be very clean or environmentally sound. Indeed, the Chinese government shows quite a lot of initiatives about how to make China greener and more sustainable. For example, the newly released 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), which is the guideline for development directions, propagates more energy-saving, higher value-added industries as well as expanding the services sector as a call for turning away from rough, polluting, and energy-wasting industries that had been made as early as the mid. The 11th Five-Year Plan further stipulates that the industrial sector must cut energy use by 20 percent.

The Chinese Government also suggested heaps of schemes to deal with different environmental problem, such as Green GDP etc. But many skeptics wonder whether all these are just done for greening the Beijing Olympics 2008 and the country will lose interest after the Game. Although I am also quit suspicious about the environmental program for the Beijing Olympics is some sorts of greenwashing, I am still optimistic that the Chinese Government does learn some lesson from the Western mordernisation. So, it is too early to say whether they will lose interest and will do badly in environmental protection after the Olympics. Let’s see.

More information:
The Dirty Secret of China's Economy
Green GDP — The Real Chinese Revolution?