China Practices "Ecological Colonialism"at its Own Expense

Abstract

How can China cope with the environmental prob- lems it faces? The Chinese press is full of ques- tions about protecting the environment, expressed in a variety of forms and slogans such as the "cyclical econ- omy" (^^^^, xunhuanjingji), the "conservation-mind- ed society" (?^^^^, jieyuexing shehui), the "energy- saving economy" (?^^^, jieneng jingji), or the "scien- tific development" (^^^^, kexuefazhan): all the con- temporary political jargon carries an environmental label. So the urgency of the situation seems to have reached polit- ical and popular awareness in China. But it is still not clear how the central government's ambitious initiatives can be put into effect or how the obstacles can be identified. Of course, the experts are pointing to a range of problems, but these often boil down to the need for governmental action.The selection of articles cited offers a variety of points of view: those of entrepreneurs, local authorities, the Finance Ministry and the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). The result reflects economic and political interests at different levels, but does not readily lend itself to any unanimity of view. What does come through, nevertheless, are the fault lines in public policy, the legisla- tive system and the funding mechanisms.According to Pan Yue, Deputy Director of SEPA, protect- ing the environment is compatible with a socialist system of government, and even favourable to it. Drawing support for his thesis from Marx and Engels, he asserts that a socialist government is in a better position to balance the need for economic growth with that for sustainable development, since social equity lies at the heart of both. Capitalist gov- ernments have not only developed industrialisation at all costs (albeit at a far slower rhythm than that experienced in China) but, now that they have become aware of the envi- ronmental effects, they have also adopted a sort of "environ- mental colonialism:" they export their most polluting and energy consuming industries to the developing countries.China, in its interior, is living through a comparable phe- nomenon: the polluting industries migrate from east to west, and from the towns to the countryside. "The rich consume and the poor suffer from pollution," Pan Yue says. As a good official, he supports the government's efforts and considers that "scientific development" offers the right answer to Chinese problems. For too long, China has imitated the Western model (at an accelerated pace); but the model is ill- adapted to China. Contrary to some people's thinking, sci- entific development is not merely a change in production methods and growth: it represents a shake-up in economic and industrial practices: "It is a new civilisation," that China will be trying out between now and 2020. Yet, Pan Yue does not explain what "scientific development" means in terms of real measures; nor does he say how these measures go beyond the economic field and influence the political and social fields so as to end up with a new civilisation.Thus, having created the term "socialist environmentalism," Pan Yue adopts the stance of Party theoretician; he does not spell out the problems that might arise between now and 2020, or those already in evidence.In the field of public policy, the entrepreneurs gathered last year at Boao Forum for Asia, cited by Chen Shanzhe, rec- ommended that the government should make a real commit- ment to protecting the environment, introducing the "cyclic economy" and developing renewable energy sources. To encourage enterprises towards less polluting production methods, a real system of initiatives will be necessary along- side a real system of penalties for cases of default. The way things are currently, enterprises have no financial motivation for changing their production techniques, since the fines they risk amount to no more than 600 yuan less than the cost of making changes in equipment and production tech- nology. …