Three-quarters of a million people are dying from pollution, (in the old days Maoist purges and land ‘reform’ easily reached those numbers), and it’s the usual yawn, yawn!
According to the Financial Times, China “engineered the removal of nearly a third of a World Bank report on pollution in China because of concerns that findings on premature deaths could provoke “social unrest”. Given the tinderbox of social problems in rural and urban China, the Communist Party fears that even seemingly non-political issues can quickly flash-up into conflict. In light of the ruler’s historic fear of chaos, there’s a perverted logic to preserve the status quo of silence, but at what cost?
Beijing’s Marxist mandarins are masters at censorship, or what is more politely called “responsible or patriotic reporting.” Since London’s Financial Times broke the sordid story, there’s naturally the impulse of the ruling Communist Party to whitewash the findings. This is expected. What should hardly follow seems to appear that the World Bank has kowtowed to these political pressures.
While communist China has operated with a culture of cover-up, corruption, and crony capitalism, within the one party state rule, there remain serious socio/economic pressures for change. Now in the countdown to the Communist party congress in October, PRC leader Hu Jintao has appointed two non-party Ministers to the government. Both the Health Minister and the Science Minister are European trained and not party members, meaning they have no formal access to the inner sanctum. Thus while Beijing can claim some political reform, the fact remains that the new Ministers, both in sensitive portfolios, can be easily sacked as fall guys.
Given that China has sixteen of the world’s most polluted cities, these findings in themselves should prove little surprise. Even Hong Kong which returned to Chinese rule a decade ago, now has a growing pollution problem. Sarah Liao, Hong Kong environment secretary told the Economist, “The sea breeze often used to save Hong Kong from the effects of filling the atmosphere with so many pollutants….we have got to the stage where we are swimming in a constant chemical soup.”
Despite the genuine social and economic reforms over the past twenty years, the People’s Republic political system remains authoritarian. Environmental issues remain very sensitive for the leadership who uses unchecked economic growth in some provinces as a tradeoff to the unchallenged political mandate by a communist party comprising fewer than five percent of the population. While fully aware of the need for a cleaner environment, Beijing views pollution issues as having the political potential to promote questioning of central authority and prompting unrest. Given the number of people dying from this pollution, the rulers have good reason to fear.