China Emerging_ 1978-2008 - Xiao-bo , Wu [70]
China’s pollution issues have attracted general concern around the world. A World Bank report noted that sixteen of the globe’s twenty most heavily polluted cities are in China. Newsweek published an article titled “China Exports Pollution.” The reporter noted that in recent years, the air in Beijing has become as thick as a bowl of egg-drop soup. “Made in China” implies cheap shoddy goods, but now the country is exporting something far more expensive: environmental degradation. Acid rain and other pollutants are already poisoning close to one-quarter of China’s cultivated land. Some regions of Japan and Korea are experiencing the withering of crops due to China’s acid rain. The over-felling of trees and destruction of grasslands is leading to terrifyingly fast desertification in northern China, to the extent that wind-blown sand is reaching the west coast of the United States. Currently, 27% of China’s land is undergoing desertification. The United States pumps more greenhouse gasses into the air than any other country on earth, but China is a close second. It has become the globe’s second worst source of pollution.
Environmental degradation is a heavy price to pay for economic advancement.Thesubjecthasbecomeoneofgreatconcerntoboththeworld and to the citizens of China. According to professional estimates, China’s GDP accounts for 5.5% of the world’s gross products, but its consumption of resourcesisshockinglyhigher.Chinaconsumes8%oftheworld’sconsumption of oil, 40% of raw coal, 32% of crude steel, 25% of aluminum oxide, 48% of cement, 33% of glass, and 30% of fertilizers. China’s reliance on foreign miningsourcesforitsresourceshasincreasedfrom5%in1990toover50%in 2007.Atthesametime,theefficiencywithwhichChinausesresourcesislow. All indicators show that China is using resources at an astonishing rate for a number of reasons, and clearly at a rate that will be impossible to sustain.
In the fall of 2007, China’s National Development and Reform Commission arranged for RMB 540 million of government bonds to support ninety-eight resource-conserving projects. The State Council also signed forty-five agreements with the key enterprises on resource conservation. A new resource conservation law is soon to be put forth.
At the same time, the verbal international attacks aimed at “Made in China” have intensified, and the criticism of “Made in China” has become
The severe pollutant emissions from a cement factory along the banks of the Wujiang River has destroyed the scenic beauty of the region (April 2005).
a tool that politicians can reach for at any time. A Financial Times reporter based in Beijing describes the contradictory attitude in the West as follows: On the one hand, Western consumers are deriving great benefit from cheap goods; on the other hand, they are complaining loudly about shoddy goods and saying that they are losing jobs in their local regions while allowing China to gain undeniable benefit.
In fact, as the RMB has continued to appreciate, and as international businesses are entering and competing inside China, many enterprises in the country are already turning toward their own domestic market. In July 2007, China’s largest sock manufacturer, the Langsha Group, announced that at the end of the month, it would be handing over the last batch of goods and would no longer be taking any orders from Wal-Mart. This company has sold US$5 million worth of products to Wal-Mart every