March 09, 2007
Pollution, income gap become priorities in China
The other day Chinese premier Wen Jiabao gave his annual policy speech to the National People's Congress in Beijing. For starters, there was a bit of good news for all of us who breathe air: The government seems to finally be getting serious about China’s pollution problem. (The inattention to environmental controls in China today would give a Sierra Club member the screaming meemies.) The government is promising new restrictions on polluting industries, but the specifics have yet to be fleshed out.
Income inequality is another one of Wen Jiabao’s big headaches. The Chinese Communist Party has traditionally counted the rural population as its most important power base. Mao Zedong originally overthrew the Nationalist government by riding a wave of peasant discontent. (In this respect, the Chinese Communist Revolution differed greatly from the Bolshevik Revolution---which got its momentum going in Russia’s cities.) When Mao was in power, the revolutionary devotion of the agricultural class was a sacrosanct fixture of Chinese Communist mythology.
Now, however, the cities are where the money is. As China has evolved from an orthodox Communist state to quasi-free market, soft dictatorship, its rural residents have lost the spotlight that they once enjoyed. And as China’s coastal cities have prospered, the country’s masses of rural poor (over 700 million of them) are no longer cultural icons. In fact, they have become almost an embarrassment to Chinese officials who want to accentuate the positive in the new China.
Although Wen Jiabao (like any politician) is motivated by self-interest, he does deserve credit for addressing these knotty issues. My only concern is that when the Chinese government decides to address a problem---like the population issue, for example---that usually means lots of ham-handed, coercive tactics. Where the Chinese government is concerned, the cure is all too often more harmful than the disease.
But let’s give Mr. Wen a chance. We will see if he can turn over a new leaf.
Notes: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a7hSIDcifkPs&refer=home