Amid public outcry over China’s increasingly unsustainable levels of pollution and environmental destruction, the government is reconsidering its ‘economic growth at all cost’ strategy.
The ruling Communist Party has announced it will place more
emphasis on environmental protection when monitoring the
performance of local officials, holding them directly responsible
for excessive levels of pollution and ecological damage, Reuters
reported.
The document draws an "ecological protection red line"
under the world’s second-largest economy that would apply the
brakes on economic development in environmentally vulnerable
regions, among other major changes announced last week, including
easing the country’s one-child law.
The campaign will guide local authorities away from the pursuit
of economic growth at all costs while punishing polluters to
reverse the ecological damage done by three decades of unchecked
economic growth.
China’s phenomenal economic growth has a tendency to leave one
breathless; unfortunately, that is more of a literal statement
than some people may realize. Just this month, Chinese doctors
blamed high levels of air pollution for an eight-year-old girl
contracting lung disease - the country’s youngest person ever to acquire a disease normally
confined to the elderly.
The girl, whose name has been withheld by the authorities, lives
near a smog-choked road in the eastern province of Jiangsu, said
Xinhuanet, the website of China's official news agency.
It is not just air quality that concerns the Communist Party. As
public opinion reaches boiling point over dangerous smog,
contaminated soil and poisoned water supplies, China is worried
the problems may eventually lead to social instability.
The new policy document said China would "correct the bias
towards assessing [officials] on the speed of economic growth and
increase the weight placed on other indicators such as resource
use, environmental damage, ecological benefits, industrial
overcapacity, scientific innovation, work safety and newly-added
debt."
Although Beijing already assesses local authorities on the way
they handle the environment, the economy is king.
"Before, they were just using environmental protection as
another way of generating economic growth and even if something
causes a great deal of immediate environmental damage, they would
still consider the short-term economic benefits," Zhou Lei at
Nanjing University, who studies the impact of industry on the
environment, told Reuters.
The campaign will also make adaptations to the country's
environmental protection laws, which are expected to be published
soon and will give environmental agencies new powers to punish
polluters, as well as improve the way the Chinese government
monitors the situation across the country.
Zhou, however, believes the new rules do not go far enough.
"In my opinion, it is typical Chinese lip service and should
not be treated seriously," he said. "What will really
solve the current environmental degradation is to systematically
re-appraise all the problematic projects and let justice be
served regarding all the perpetrators."