Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson

Author:Henry M. Paulson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics / Government & Business, History / Asia / China
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2015-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

Over my years of close contact with China, I’d learned that it was impossible to separate the country’s environmental challenges from its rapid growth: China’s dazzling economic leap forward had taken a horrific toll on its environment. You saw and felt that firsthand everywhere you went: in the choking smog that increasingly blanketed Beijing and other big cities; in the fetid rivers and lakes that made China’s water undrinkable for much of the population; in the reports of basic foodstuffs like rice tainted by industrial heavy metals like cadmium. The problem played out in the streets, putting at risk not only the nation’s health but also its social and political stability. In 2005 China had seen an estimated 50,000 protests, some of them violent, that had been prompted by environmental issues.

The very structure of the Chinese economy encouraged abuse, with state-owned enterprises run at the regional level by officials who were rewarded for growth at any cost. The toll was startling: in 2007 the World Bank estimated that pollution cost China 5.8 percent of GDP annually and caused 750,000 premature deaths each year. An earlier World Bank report had found China home to 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities. Suffering from severe water and air pollution, the country faced the prospect of an unprecedented environmental catastrophe.

Nor were China’s environmental problems contained by its borders, as particles of air pollution were carried across the Pacific on westerly winds to the U.S. Power plants burning coal to meet an insatiable demand for electricity combined with record numbers of cars and trucks rolling onto a rapidly growing highway system helped cause emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide to nearly double from 2000 to 2007, on China’s way to surpassing the U.S. as the largest emitter of CO2 in the world. If China couldn’t get a better handle on environmental protection, the rest of the planet would suffer along with it.

The country was taking steps to deal with its environmental challenges. In June 2007 it unveiled a plan to address climate change, and it had vowed to make the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing “green.” But competing interests, and the leadership’s determination to pursue relentless economic growth, put environmentalists at a disadvantage. Moreover, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) had been cobbled together in 1998 out of a weak predecessor, and the agency was new and inexperienced, vastly understaffed, and lacked clout in Zhongnanhai.

Not that everything was perfect in the U.S., but after decades of public discussion, overdue legislation, and government regulation, we had demonstrated that a healthy environment could coexist with a strong economy. I hoped the SED could help China improve its approach, for everyone’s sake. At the first meeting in December 2006, we had agreed to cooperate on efficient and sustainable energy use, and the just-completed SED II had included an agreement on a range of environmental issues, including clean-coal technology and discussions aimed at securing an eventual bilateral pact to end illegal logging, which contributes to erosion, desertification, and the loss of vital natural habitats for wildlife.

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