Fool’s Mountain: Blogging for China

According to an article from the Wall Street Journal two weeks ago, China will face three major problems in the coming years.  The problems involve: the nation’s changing demographics, the increasing strain on energy and environmental resources, and widening social inequalities between the rich and poor.

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With the Beijing Games days away, the air quality issue has again surfaced, appearantly above the haze that’s settled on the city in the last couple days: Continue reading »

This post was submitted by Charles Liu.

In the deluge of earthquake news, something like this that affects daily life in China has managed to slip under the radar.

This article describes a situation that people in China are already aware of. At least in Shanghai, it’s said that an extra charge will be imposed to get your goods in those familiar plastic grocery bags.

Details:

The Chinese government is set to ban the manufacture and force shopkeepers to charge for the distribution of bags thinner than 0.025 millimeters thick as of June 1.

The Chinese government is banning production and distribution of the thinnest plastic bags in a bid to curb the white pollution that is taking over the countryside. The bags are also banned from all forms of public transportation and “scenic locations.” The move may save as much as 37 million barrels of oil currently used to produce the plastic totes, according to China Trade News. Already, the nation’s largest producer of such thin plastic bags, Huaqiang, has shut down its operations.

The effort comes amid growing environmental awareness among the Chinese people and mimics similar efforts in countries like Bangladesh and Ireland as well as the city of San Francisco, though efforts to replicate that ban in other U.S. municipalities have foundered in the face of opposition from plastic manufacturers.

The last sentence is ironic. China is no stranger to big government regulations, of course, but one can’t argue with the efficiency with which it can operate.

One of the most serious side effects of China’s unprecedented growth is the rapid degeneration of her environment, as it was recently covered by the NYT’s special series Choking on Growth.

James Fallows has a long feature article in the June issue of the Atlantic entitled “China’s Silver Lining,why soggy skies over Beijing represent the world’s great environmental opportunity.” The gist of it is that “China’s environmental situation is disastrous. And it is improving. Everyone knows about the first part. The second part if important too. ” The article is not available online yet and we will provide a link when it’s up.

I would also recommend readers who concerned on this issue checking out this excellent bilingual website China Dialogue.

As a side note: for people who plan to travel to Beijing, WSJ’s take on the World’s best Chinese food.