Chinese Economic Development and Pollution
Nicole Mendez ’11
With no turning back, China has progressed in recent
history from a socialist to a modern-day capitalist economical
power. Over the same interval, China has also become the
number-one environmental polluter in the world, especially in
water and air. With the desire for continual growth, the
environmental issues come into question. Will China be able to
continue to grow but also improve their environment as well?
The immediate answer to this seems to be no, as many believe
that China is doing little to improve its environmental standings
and an environmental policy is not present. But, you may be
shocked to hear that there is a possibility for China to improve
its environment along with its economical development. My
research addresses this issue and, while acknowledging a long
history of grave environmental transgressions, recent
governmental action shows that China has at last begun to
address the pollution its expanding economy has produced.
In discussing China’s environmental issues and economic development, it was important to take a look at
some of the leaders who started large political movements that transformed China into a vast growing economic
superpower. Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping are viewed as China’s most influential leaders in shaping the
Chinese economy.
The Maoist Era (1949-1976) is viewed by many as the first real start of China becoming an industrial
economy. Mao sought to “substitute political control and ideological or moral persuasion for material stimulus, in
order to achieve a high rate of capital accumulation, [and] in a sense, the entire [economic reform] seems to be
geared towards this specific end” (Bramall 4). China, a strong communist country, is willing to do anything to
become an economically strong power. During The Big Leap Forward, Mao followed the Soviet Union’s model
of developing heavy industry and launched a national steel and iron production. Thus, many view his approach as
China’s beginning into a world of industry and mass production.
With its sole purpose of building up the economy, Mao’s industrial strategy brought more of a downfall to
China than people had predicted. With Mao’s reform, “ the face of the country was changed with new roads,
factories, cities, dikes, dams, lakes, afforestation and cultivation…[which] brought industry into the countryside”
(Fairbank 371). The changes Mao introduced to China lead to the start of a great transformation to the
environment.
Since early 1980s, Deng Xiaoping’s economic reform has played a large role in China’s change. Most
notably for its foreign trade, his policy helped to enhance China’s industrial movements. “To get rich is glorious.”
Deng’s words indicated that the ultimate goal for Chinese economic reform is mainly to get rich (Economy 59).
Much like Mao, Deng would do anything to achieve this goal and set the stage “for yet another state-sponsored
campaign to exploit the natural environment for the purpose of economic development” (59). His move into the
market economy provoked a greater need for production because China was no longer producing solely for
themselves. As a result, more factories were built and more machinery was used, which naturally caused greater
pollution.
As both leaders pushed, China’s current economy sees the results. In the last two decades since Deng’s
economic reform, China has the fastest growing economy in the world, with an average 10% growth rate in GDP.
The per capita income has also grown at an astonishing 9% growth rate per year (Wikipedia 1). China has become
the third largest economy for world trade, while the United States and Japan are the only countries ahead of
China. The economic reform for trade has made China a global powerhouse. However, the effects of becoming a
powerhouse are more than China has been able to manage. With growth rates as high as these, the environment is
drastically effected with increasing air pollution and water waste from factories.
The economic reform has caused China’s air quality to suffer. Factories in China get energy primarily from
burning coal, causing great gas emissions into the air. The air quality is less than desirable in many towns and
cities, causing the residents to become sick. Having 16 out
of 20 of the world’s worst polluted cities on the World’s
Bank List, China’s environmental issues are beginning to
raise concerns both domestically and internationally.
According to The New York Times, “Only 1% of China’s
560 million citizens breathe fresh air by the standards of the
European Union” (Kahn1). The air is becoming so polluted
from the emissions of energy sources that breathing in air
for children is comparable to “smoking two packs of
cigarettes per day” (Smil 85).
Water pollution is another problem resulting from China’s fast economic development. Waste from factories
has caused rivers to turn toxic and make it unusable (Becker 2006). China’s fresh water has slowly evaporated or
been contaminated with waste. Along with the combination of the polluted air, acid rain has caused the Northern
part of China to turn into desert-like areas. In a PBS special on China’s pollution, many people, as well as
environmentalists, pointed out that the increasing numbers of deaths, diseases and sicknesses are direct results of
the severe air and water conditions.
Another factor causing such pollution in China is that many people lack the consciousness to protect the
environment and dump their own waste anywhere they want, disregarding the pollution problem.
As grave as the Chinese environmental problem is, my research found that a large breakthrough of
environmental change occurred when China won the priviledge to host the 2008 Olympics. China began to show
its determination to make huge efforts to clean up their environment. Two hundred factories were relocated and
600,000 buses and taxies were removed from the streets in larger cities (Mone 2008).
As has happened to many countries, economic development would inevitably bring some environmental
problems along with the benefits. China, like many nations, took the “do now, and fix later” approach, building
up the economy and worrying about the environmental effects
later. China has realized the dire consequences of this approach
and is making changes. In China’s recent five-year economic
plan, the government revealed much concern for the
environment. Environmental laws were made in the plan to
reduce water-waste and air pollution. A new Clean Water Act is
in effect while many other regulations are appearing. Chinese
government is also making efforts to increase awareness of
environmental protection by educating their youth. This
endeavor is supported by some international efforts as well. The
International Energy Agency has started to develop different
plans for China to improve its energy efficiency, introducing ideas of clean coal and alternative energy usage, and
enhanced vehicle and gas emission controls. With international support and China’s efforts, I believe that China
can and will eventually improve its environmental situation for its own people as well as for the world.